Klassifikation und Kampf

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) is one of the most cited social and cultural scientists of the 20th century. His theoretical concepts and empirical studies have significantly influenced the cultural and social sciences in recent decades. This book brings together articles and essays in which Jens Kastner discusses various aspects of Bourdieu's cultural theory along central terms and concepts from Bourdieu's theory and the debates surrounding it. The focus is on the analyses of the art field, artistic habitus, and cultural domination, as well as questions regarding the role of the state in the reproduction of the social and the significance of colonial experience for the genesis of Bourdieu's cultural theory. The limits and potentials of critique are explored, and the similarities and differences with the approaches of other theorists, particularly those of Antonio Gramsci, Néstor García Canclini, and Jacques Rancière, are highlighted. In the introductory essays, brief discussions, and detailed articles, fundamental positions of a critical cultural sociology emerge, for which Bourdieu's writings remain instructive and relevant.