Pierre Bourdieu as Cognitive Sociologist
Year: 2017
Type: preprint
Abstract: It is now well established that Pierre Bourdieu’s work can be interpreted as a form of cognitive sociology. Yet, given that the term “cognitive” has a variety of meanings, the question of where Bourdieu’s project of cognitive sociology fits into other cognitively grounded approaches in the social sciences remains open. In this chapter, I argue that if Bourdieu is to be considered a cognitive theorist, then there is only one way in which we can interpret his conception of cognition, and that is as a form of embodied cognition. I distinguish different senses of the term embodiment and specify how they show up in Bourdieu’s work. I discuss two broad sets of empirical phenomena---the “hard” and “soft” embodiment of culture---that have recently been identified and argue that their discovery represents a vindication of the prescience and extant promise of Bourdieu’s version of cognitive sociology. I close by providing indications how we can further an empirically grounded version of Bourdieu’s cognitive sociology today.
Author: Omar Lizardo
Institution: University of Notre Dame
Language: English
Topic: Social and Cultural Dynamics
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4239060171