Read more
Building on three decades of comparative research on marginality, ethnicity, and penality in the postindustrial metropolis, Loïc Wacquant offers a novel interpretation of Pierre Bourdieu as urban theorist. He invites us to explore the city through what he calls the trialectic of symbolic space (the mental categories through which we perceive and organize the world), social space (the distribution of capital in its different forms), and physical space (the built environment). On this reading, Bourdieu's topological sociology gives us the tools both to energize and also to challenge the canon of urban studies and to redraw their theoretical landscape.
Compact and incisive, Bourdieu in the City will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology, anthropology, geography, urban studies, urban planning, architecture, and social theory.
List of contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Taking Bourdieu to Town
Prologue
1 Bourdieu in the Urban Crucible
2 The Bitter Taste of Territorial Taint
3 Marginality, Ethnicity and Penality in the Neoliberal Metropolis
Epilogue Bourdieu in the City, the City in Bourdieu
References
About the author
Loïc Wacquant is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Research associate at the Centre de sociologie européenne, Paris. His books are translated in twenty languages and include
Urban Outcasts (2008) and
The Invention of the "Underclass" (2022), both also published by Polity.
Summary
Building on three decades of comparative research on marginality, ethnicity, and penality in the postindustrial metropolis, Loïc Wacquant offers a novel interpretation of Pierre Bourdieu as urban theorist. He invites us to explore the city through what he calls the trialectic of symbolic space (the mental categories through which we perceive and organize the world), social space (the distribution of capital in its different forms), and physical space (the built environment). On this reading, Bourdieu's topological sociology gives us the tools both to energize and also to challenge the canon of urban studies and to redraw their theoretical landscape.
Compact and incisive, Bourdieu in the City will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology, anthropology, geography, urban studies, urban planning, architecture, and social theory.
Report
"In this captivating book, Loïc Wacquant excavates Pierre Bourdieu's social theory for insights that might illuminate the neoliberal metropolis and its contentious power relations. In so doing, he produces an incisive, if deeply disturbing, portrait of contemporary urban marginality and neighborhood-level 'taint', a remarkable interpretive synthesis of his own illustrious pathway of urban inquiry, and a brilliantly creative application of Bourdieu's key concepts and methods to the field of urban social science."
--Neil Brenner, University of Chicago
"Loïc Wacquant dissects carefully the conceptual framework of Bourdieu, provides a differentiated view of social space from Bourdieu's understanding of relational sociology, and reminds us that marginalization continues to be a main concern for urban scholars. A must-read for anyone interested to see how Wacquant eloquently combines Bourdieu's work with an urban perspective as well as draws on his own influential work from over the years to sharpen our theoretical and methodological lenses on urban inequality."
--Professor Talja Blokland, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
"[A] significant milestone in enhancing urban theory by introducing fresh perspectives."
Journal of Urban Affairs
