About the state. The course of lectures at the college de France 1989 - 1992. Bourdier P.

The question of the state is the central for all the work of Pierre Burdier, and it was to him that he devoted to the three -year lecture cycle, given to her college de France, uniting the results of his perennial research. The concepts introduced in previous works - cultural and symbolic capital, symbolic violence, fields and space, practical logic - receive a new interpretation in this course about the state, representing approaches to the sociological theory of the genesis of the European state.

The book is presented in a sense of another Bourdier, its style differs from the style of scientific publications itself: the text of the lectures demonstrates the sociological work in Actu, both in its theoretical and empirical moments. Exposing the illusions of the “thoughts of the state”, striving to consolidate the belief that the state serves as a common good, Bourdieus also criticizes the anti -institutional mood of sociologists and philosophers, who reduce the state apparatus exclusively to the function of servicing those in power. Of particular interest is the analysis of the dismantling of the social state, which Burdier interprets as a consequence of a certain struggle within the field of the state itself and high -ranking bureaucracy.