Körperbegriff und Körperpraxis

Michael Hubrich examines the body as a fundamental category in sociological theories. He reconstructs important but narrowly defined theoretical implications based on the concepts of the body in the works of Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman, which seemingly exclude each other. The body is understood either as an effect of power and discourse or as a performative source of interactive action. This unproductive dichotomy, which is firmly inscribed in the current sociological discourse on the body, is addressed in this theoretical study by proposing an understanding of the material corporeality of social practices that is oriented towards Pierre Bourdieu's sociological theory of practice. In doing so, the author reveals new ways to define the body as a fundamental sociological concept.