Why start a Bourdieu blog?

The short version is: There weren’t any around yet.

The longer version: I hav been feeling a strange lack of up-to-date online resources and internet-based debate about the works of Pierre Bourdieu, whom I consider the most important – and most inspiring – sociologist of the last 30 years or so. Now, during the last year or two, I’ve been working towards writing a doctoral thesis that draws on the concepts of Bourdieu (namely, those of field and habitus) as well as those of Michel Foucault (the dispositif, mainly) and tries to make a combination of both workable in empirical research on what we call the ‘labour market’. And in this process I’ve been noticing this strange lack of web activity concerning Bourdieu. There’s a whole bunch of blogs and more or less up-to-date sites dealing with Foucault and his concepts – just like there are for a range of other theorists – but there’s nothing of the kind catering for the needs of Bourdieu aficionad@s. Not in English (or German), anyway. That’s what I’d like to change. If time allows, I’ll try to make this blog a place for accessing and exchanging information on all things Bourdieu: New books and articles, conferences, Bourdieu-inspired reflections on current events, and whatever else might come along. So if you’ve been noticing the same lack or just share my interest in Bourdieu, you’re very welcome to contribute.