Özatalay, Cem Galatasaray Üniversitesi - Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi - Sosyoloji Bölümü, Turkey

Bourdieu in his Relation to the Economic Theory: A Comprador or a Critic?

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The debate on Bourdieu’s relationship with neoclassical economic theory has become more apparent especially with the advancement of the neoliberalization process. The question was whether Bourdieu’s conceptual framework based on the notions of “habitus”, “field” and “different types of capital” consisted of a simple extension of the neoclassical economic theory in social theory or rather a radical critique of it. Some saw him as one of the representatives of “economic imperialism” in the discipline of sociology; while others considered his work as a “counterhegemonic project” against the neoclassical theory. Unlike these two parts, this article proposes to consider the same issue by situating it in its historical and social context. In order to do this, Bourdieu’s anthropological field studies on Algeria and “the bank and its customers”, and also his empirical exploration about the commercialization of individual house market are referred. As a result, the article presents that Bourdieu’s approach not only shares its epistemological framework with neoclassical theory, but that this affinity in no way decreases its capacity of criticism, but rather, enhances it.

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Sociology of Bourdieu , Economic Sociology , Economic Field , The Social Structures of the Economy , Criticism of Neoclassical Economic Theory

Turkish journal of sociology

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