Bourdieu on the State: Beyond Marx?

Abstract

Numerous scholars have pointed up Pierre Bourdieu’s lineage to Emile Durkheim and particularly Max Weber as Bourdieu himself acknowledged. Bourdieu’s relationship to Karl Marx, however, is more contested. Some critics have labelled Bourdieu as a Marxist. Others see him as a non-Marxist who nonetheless extends some of Marx’s thinking in useful directions. Still others contend that nothing in Bourdieu could substantively be considered Marxist. This chapter continues this critical examination of Bourdieu’s relationship to Marx but on an important topic that has received little attention, namely, how Bourdieu compares to Marx in thinking about the modern state. This chapter offers a systematic comparison of Bourdieu’s thinking to the relevant texts of Marx. It shows some overlap but considerable divergence in Bourdieu’s idea that states attempt to monopolize the means of symbolic violence, which for Bourdieu, more than for Marx, is key to controlling the social order. And it offers some intellectual field perspectives on the way Bourdieu relates to Marx’s texts.