Cultural Analysis and Bourdieu’s Legacy: Settling Accounts and Developing Alternatives

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I wrote a chapter within the book titled "Looking back at Bourdieu." The coeditors of this volume asked me to discuss the influence of Pierre Bourdieu on my intellectual trajectory in an autobiographical mode. I have been quite reluctant to do so because writing such a piece requires a degree of reflexivity that I may have yet to achieve. Moreover, as a mid-career sociologist (or at least one who recently turned fifty), I also hesitate to approach my own work as an object of commentary for fear of hubris. I have taken on the challenge, if only to clarify for myself the last twenty five years.

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