PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This response challenges Andre Kieserling's claim according to which Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical edifice points Unequivocally towards the societal primacy of field differentiation, thereby relegating class to relevance solely within the private sphere. Counter to Kieserling's reading, which sees a neutralization of class affiliation inherently tied to the field concept, attention is brought to the notion of "structural homologies" between fields and classes. In line with the assumption of such interrelations, Bourdieu proposes a concept of autonomy according to which the field produces not a neutralization but a translation and transfiguration of class oppositions. The homologies between fields and classes, which are preserved by this "relative" autonomy, result in a logic of overdetermination, with dynamics within the field concurring with the broader dynamics of class struggle. Finally, it is argued that neither the early studies on education nor the concept of the generalization of profits within the field can be taken without reservation as evidence of the theoretical primacy of field differentiation.