READING GROUP: Pierre Bourdieu's Sur l'État. Cours au Collège de France (VUB, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Law), 24 SEP 2018

(image source: La Martinière)

The first session of the reading group on "Sur l'État. Cours au Collège de France" will focus on Pierre Bourdieu's treatment of history, namely the vital transformation of what the sociologist terms "house thinking" to "raison d'État". Bourdieu's social construction of the conditions wherein the state can be thought, and wherein opposition to the legal orthodoxy of the state, thought by jurists, can become possible, is at the same time scrupulously respectful of established historical scholarship (ergo not very original, as the main narrative is already well known) and refreshing (with regards to new terms and concepts, that can possibly advance the state of our knowledge). 

Bourdieu is a central figure in the humanities and social sciences. Using his concepts (habitus - field - symbolic violence - doxa - orthodoxy - gatekeepers - implicit normativity), sometimes deliberately undefined and vague, can build bridges to render historical material understandable to a lay audience of sociologists, lawyers, philosophers... For instance, the technical and painstaking nature of procedures, political deals or networks generally comes first in legal historical research, whereas the conclusions are apt to be understood by a broader scientific audience. This of course does not allow shedding traditional heuristics and primary source-analysis.

In view of the time that separates us from the early 1990s when Bourdieu presented his intuitions at the Collège de Francw, much complementary historical research has filled this gap. Bourdieu's intuitions will be confronted by work on normativity and the early modern state by Lucien Bély (diplomatic history), Martin Loughlin (public law) and Olivier Beaud (public law). 

Readers are encouraged to address the whole book. Yet, in view of the repetitive nature of Bourdieu's explanations and the many digressions, the following excerpts are sufficient: - pp. 235-248 - pp. 249-264 - pp. 292-304.

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