The visual sociology of Pierre Bourdieu

This exhibition shows selected photographs from the estate of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, which, according to him, visualized his most important theoretical concepts. Bourdieu is one of the most important sociologists in the world today. His main works, Der feine Unterschie or Das Elend der Welt, belong to the canon of a broad reception in the humanities. In addition, Bourdieu’s early ethnographic research in Algeria between 1957 and 1961 is virtually unknown. Here he is accompanied by the gaze through the viewfinder of his intensively used camera. In hundreds of photographs, he captured the traces of a traditional way of life destroyed by colonial violence. He was particularly interested in the everyday behavior of women and men. At work and during everyday activities, whether in private or public spaces. The visualization of a gender-specific attitude is the direct basis of his later developed habitus theory and the later written study Die männliche Herrschaft. The exhibition works with a systematic combination of images and text. It will be linked to the Pierre Bourdieu Lectures at Bielefeld University and the Fondation Bourdieu .