Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Culture and the Possibility of Social Change

Abstract

This article critically analyzes Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas on the social change in the context of his sociology of culture. Around this analysis the study presents how Bourdieu places social change in his sociology of culture and shows his theoretical possibilities and limitations about the change within the social. Thus, it is claimed that Bourdieu’s sociology of culture inserts the agency into the cultural analysis to open a space for the change within the social through assigning an active role to the agents vis-a-vis objective social conditions and structures, however, his ideas on agency delimits the scope of change in the social. Correspondingly, the study sets forth the possibilities and limitations of theory of social change in Bourdieu’s sociology of culture critically by means of examining his general theoretical procedures and ideas on the social.