Gender – Domination – Visuality

Exactly 70 years ago, in 1955, the french sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) was sent as a soldier to fight in the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962). The country had been a French colony since 1830 and was considered part of French territory. Under the impression of the war, the young philosophy doctoral student realized that his familiar tools of thought were insufficient to understand the reality of colonial power relations. With a camera and notebook, he developed a new method that combined observation, image, and theory.

The photographs and notes document not only a society marked by war, but also an attempt to understand profound processes of change. Of the approximately 3,000 photographs, around 1,200 are still preserved in the archive. To this day, they offer unique insight into Bourdieu’s sociological perspective and make his concepts tangible beyond the written word.

This exhibition focuses on the relationship between men and women visible in posture (hexis) and mindset (ethos)—the destruction of rural life, and the negative consequences of forced modernization. These insights later flowed into Bourdieu’s works such as “The Practical Sense” (1980, Le sens pratique) and “Masculine Domination” (1998, La domination masculine).

Quotes from Bourdieu’s field notes enter into dialogue with the images here and make it clear that for Bourdieu, seeing was part of thinking.  On November 19 and 20, the Kunsthalle Bielefeld will host the first Bourdieu Lectures on Gender Sociology, organized by Universität Bielefeld, the Zeppelin University (Friedrichshafen), the Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg and the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, with the support of the Fondation Bourdieu. Details and registration can be found on the Fondation Bourdieu website.

More Information about this exhibition.

1954
On 1 November, the Algerian War of Independence begins with attacks by the Front de Libération Nationale (National Liberation Front of Algeria, FLN for short). Algeria had been colonised by France since 1830 and had been officially considered part of France since 1848.

1955
At the age of 25, Pierre Bourdieu is drafted into military service in the Chelif Valley in Algeria. He had previously studied philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and worked as a teacher in the French provinces.

1956
Bourdieu is transferred to the Documentation and Information Service in Algiers.

1957
The Battle of Algiers ends with the military victory of the French army. While still in military service, Bourdieu begins work on his first book, Sociologie de l’Algérie (1958).

1958-1959
Bourdieu becomes an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Algiers. There he meets Abdelmalek Sayad, who becomes his student, later a close friend and long-time research partner.

1958
Bourdieu publishes Sociologie de l’Algérie, an analysis of colonial power relations, social structures and cultural change. At the same time, he uses a camera for his research for the first time. Between 1958 and 1961, he takes around 3,000 photographs in Algeria and in his native region of Béarn in France.

1959
In 1959, Bourdieu returns to France under political pressure, but continues to travel to Algeria every summer until 1961. He teaches regularly in Algiers until 1976. Back in Paris, he switches from philosophy to sociology, becomes Raymond Aron’s assistant and co-director of the Centre de Sociologie Européenne.

1960
Bourdieu and Abdelmalek Sayad collect data in the regroupment camps and ‘forbidden zones’ established by the French army in Algeria since 1954, which is incorporated into the study ‘Le Déracinement’ (1964).

1962
The war ends on 19 March 1962 with the Évian Agreement, which establishes a ceasefire and Algerian independence. Social injustice and racism towards Algerians in France remain a central theme for Bourdieu.

1963
With Travail et travailleurs en Algérie, Bourdieu publishes a study on the social consequences of colonialism, war and forced modernisation. He returns to the Algerian resettlement camps to collect data. The extensive use of photographic evidence originally planned is limited to a few images for publishing reasons.

1964
Bourdieu becomes Director of Research at the École pratique des Hautes Études and Secretary General of the Centre de Sociologie Européenne. Le Déracinement, a study of the violent resettlement of Algerians in military-controlled camps and its social consequences, is published.

1965
A military coup led by Houari Boumédiène overthrows President Ben Bella and initiates a ‘revolutionary change of course’ that leads to an authoritarian regime.

1972
Bourdieu travels to Algerian resettlement camps again to supplement his data. In Esquisse d’une théorie de la pratique, he develops his theory of practice with the central three-step approach: structure – habitus – practice, and publishes three accompanying ethnological studies on Kabyle society.

1980
Le sens pratique is considered Bourdieu’s main theoretical work, in which he mediates between Sartre’s subjectivism and Lévi-Strauss‘ objectivism, thus establishing his own theory of practice.

1993
In early summer, following the outbreak of civil war in Algeria and a series of murders of university staff, writers and journalists, Bourdieu takes over as chair of the solidarity committee CISIA (Comité International de Soutien aux Intellectuels Algériens) and makes several statements on the difficult political situation.

1995
Bourdieu publishes the article La domination masculine in Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, in which he presents the central theses of his later work. He uses photographs from his field research in Algeria to illustrate gender-specific postures (hexis) and male domination.

2000
Bourdieu takes part in the colloquium 17 et 18 octobre 1961: massacres d’Algériens sur ordonnance? in Paris and expresses his criticism of the massacre of Algerians in 1961, which has been largely suppressed from official collective memory in France.

2002
Bourdieu dies on 23 January in Paris. Ein Soziologischer Selbstversuch (A Sociological Self-Experiment) is published posthumously in German in the same year. The analysis highlights the formative influence of research and war experience in Algeria on his thinking.