As some of you may know, Jean Lave is overseeing a seminar on Bourdieu's
work. Unfortunately, it isn't the sort of thing that is very
transportable, but let me briefly say that Bourdieu is well aware of his
own position in French society.
So when Angel echoes:
>but Jay raised a
>very critical point: where has his work come from? What social/economic
>position does he occupy? Whose (historcial, sociological) accounts are
>his accounts?
The answer that comes back is a mix of the upper-class French culture
that Bourdieu now occupies with the working class/rural roots that
Bourdieu came from. How that mix gets resolved is a frequent target of
Bourdieu's critics. Yet, My sense is that Bourdieu feels that the only
subject position from which to continue his enterprise - is the one he
holds. This is a tough argument to counter. How many books on Sociology
are published by peasants from the French countryside?
>Presumably, we could (and should?) all ask of ourselves
>similar questions... so one can ask, what position does Jay Lemke
>(others, oneself...etc.) occupy? Such a reflexive approach is a
>"soul-searching", radical, reflexive one, isn't it?
Angel's questions are haunting to me. I learned much from being a
salesman in a working class dive shop (not the least of which that I
didn't know how to live on the salary of a working class salesman.)
Thrust into the hungry world of new PhDs, I am painfully aware of the
fact that research is done primary because it can be paid for, not
because it should be done. I think it would be very healthy for all
social scientists to "walk a mile in the working classes shoes." My
feeling is that to do that would be suicide for my academic career, and
that I am by no means in the minority.
Edouard
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: Edouard Lagache :
: lagache who-is-at violet.berkeley.edu :
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: In my experience I know of one universal truth: :
: All speakers seek to express one universal truth - theirs. :
: :
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: Edouard Lagache, Nov-95 :
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