The construction of the object of study. Epistemological lessons from the works of Pierre Bourdieu

Abstract

Pierre Bourdieu is one of those authors that it is always possible to “rediscover” depending on the scientific interests that the reader has, and that because of the mastery with which he practiced science critically. For him, epistemology, more than a discursive meta-science, is a practice (conscious or not) for every sociologist who exerts the office of scientific research, and his very scientific legacy evidences it. Hence, his “reflexive sociology” is nothing more than a practical epistemology that allows at the same time the most varied construction of scientific objects with the support of a theoretical capital amassed throughout his intellectual career in the formula [(habitus) (capital)] + field = practice whose openly addressed concepts allow it. Just as it can be learned theoretical and methodological lessons, this article presents two direct lessons from the work of the French sociologist, one epistemological and another about the construction of the object of study, and an indirect one in the conclusions about the advantages of being faced with an open and unfinished proposal like Pierre Bourdieu's for scientific research.