PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Bourdieu’s praxeology is often received as a theory of static reproduction of social structure. In order to open a way for reading Bourdieu as a change theorist, I propose receiving his entire theory in a relational way. As a premise, I describe the experience of time as putting past, present, and future in relation. Then I move on to three different concepts of change. First, I describe social ageing as the change of dispositions that results of gathering experience. Second, I discuss intergenerational change, arguing that the passing on of dispositions in Bourdieu’s theory is not granted but the product of educational labor that never leads to perfect reproduction of habitus. Third, I show that struggle is the central category of change in Bourdieu. For modeling struggle, I propose the model of a series of events. Finally, I argue that Bourdieu was a change theorist who empirically discovered reproduction.