Appropriating Bourdieu: Feminist Theory and Pierre Bourdieu's Sociology of Culture

TLDR

Feminist theory is a form of critical theory that is inherently political, drawing on Marxist ideas of critique that emphasize immanent, dialectical analysis rather than transcendental perspectives. The paper aims to situate Bourdieu’s social theory within its French context and to propose appropriation and critique as feminist strategies that contest the notion that feminists are merely observers. Rather than conducting extensive empirical research, the author defines appropriation as a critical assessment that adopts and adapts a theory for feminist ends, a more modest but concrete form of theoretical engagement. The study is titled Appropriating Bourdieu, underscoring its focus on reinterpreting Bourdieu’s framework for feminist purposes.

Abstract

EMINIST THEORY is critical theory; feminist is therefore necessarily political. In making this claim I draw on the Marxist concept of critique, succinctly summarized by Kate Soper as a theoretical exercise which, by explaining the source in reality of the cognitive shortcomings of the theory under attack, call[s] for changes in the reality itself (93). In this sense, Soper writes, feminist comes to echo critical theory as developed by the Frankfurt School with its emphasis on argued justification for concrete, emancipatory practice (93).1 This is clearly an ambitious aim, which would require me to situate Pierre Bourdieu's social theory in relation to the specific French social formation which produced it. Such analysis would require substantial empirical research: there is no space for such an undertaking in this context. I have therefore called this paper Appropriating Bourdieu. By appropriation I understand a critical assessment of a given theory formation with a view to taking it over and using it for feminist purposes.2 Appropriation, then, is theoretically somewhat more modest than a full-scale and has a relatively well-defined concrete purpose. Neither appropriation nor critique rely on the idea of a transcendental vantage point from which to scrutinize the theory formation in question. Unlike the Enlightenment concept of criticism, the concept of critique as used here is immanent and dialectical. My proposal of appropriation and critique as key feminist activities is intended to contest the idea that feminists are