Pierre Bourdieu 
Political Interventions 
Social Science and Political Action

Pierre Bourdieu, one of the most influential critical social theorists of the second half of the twentieth century, once described sociology as ‘a combat sport.’ This comprehensive collection of his writings on politics and social science, from early 1960s articles on the Algerian War of Independence to the last text he published before his death, proves that this vision was enduring throughout his life-as well as a serious scholar Bourdieu was always an outspoken public intellectual.


Political Interventions includes many texts hitherto unavailable in English and, placing them in their historical context, reconstructs Bourdieu’s vision of academic study and political activism as two sides of the same process: the decoding and critique of social reality in order to transform it.

About the author

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) was Professor of Sociology at the Coll�ge de France and Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He was the author of many books, most notably Distinction, The Rules of Art, The State Nobility, Homo Academicus, The Logic of Practice, and The Weight of the World.