American Sociological Association Sociological Theory

Decolonizing Bourdieu: Colonial and Postcolonial Theory in Pierre Bourdieu's Early Work
Author(s): Julian Go
Source: Sociological Theory, Vol. 31, No. 1 (MARCH 2013), pp. 49-74
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43186637
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Sociological Theory
31(1)49-74
Decolonizing Bourdieu: ©American Sociological Association 2013
DOI: 1 0. 1 1 77/0735275 1 1 3477082
Colonial and Postcolonial stx.sagepub.com
USAGE
Theory in Pierre Bourdieu's
Early Work
Julian Go1
Abstract
While new scholarship on Pierre Bourdieu has recovered his early work on Algeria,
this essay excavates his early thoughts on colonialism. Contrary to received wisdom
Bourdieu did in fact offer a theory of colonialism and a systematic understanding of
effects and logics. Bourdieu portrayed colonialism as a racialized system of dominatio
backed by force, which restructures social relations and creates hybrid cultures. His theory
entailed insights on the limits and promises of colonial reform, anticolonial revolution, and
postcolonial liberation. Bourdieu's early thinking on colonialism drew upon but extend
French colonial studies of the time. It also contains the seeds of later concepts like habitus
field, and reflexive sociology while prefiguring more recent disciplinary postcolonial studi
Bourdieusian sociology in this sense originates not just as a study of Algeria but m
specifically a critique of colonialism. It can be seen as contributing to the larger project of
postcolonial sociology.
Keywords
Bourdieu, colonialism, postcolonialism, habitus, field
The Arabs of La Peste and L ' Etranger [by Albert Camus] are nameless beings used as back-
ground for the portentous European metaphysics explored by Camus. ... Is it farfetched to draw
an analogy between Camus and Bourdieu in Outline of a Theory of Practice , perhaps the most
influential theoretical text in anthropology today, which makes no mention of colonialism?
-Edward Said (1989:223)
[T]here never existed in Algeria a truly isolated community, completely untouched by the
colonial situation.
- Pierre Bourdieu (1959:63).
Pierre Bourdieu's vast intellectual influence is expressed in the diverse topics to which
his ideas have been applied. His concepts have been deployed to study nearly everything -
education, kinship, unemployment, religion, globalization, art, literature, the state, gender,
'Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
Corresponding Author:
Julian Go, Department of Sociology, Boston University, 96 Cummington St., Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Email: juliango@bu.edu
50 Sociological Theory 31(1)
the body, immigration, the media, a

studies of colonialism and associated m
intercultural domination in non-Weste
On the one hand, we know that Bourd
on Algerian society. This was when h
the University of Algiers, and did his
lead to his famous theory of practic
a number of articles and books on A
1961; Bourdieu et al. 1963; Bourdieu
documenting Algerians' way of life
has begun to mine this early work. Y
on Algeria, offering invaluable insi
2003a, 2003b, 2005, 2008a, 2008b). He
tices in Algeria formed the basis for
others have recovered various other
Haddour 2010; Marqués Perales 2009
Scholars writing in the English langu
in Goodman and Silverstein (2009
(Wacquant 2004; see also Calhoun 20
Danahay 2004, 2005; Robbins 2003).
Yet, despite this new work, Bourdie
It is one thing to study a foreign soc
forms, or the impact of capitalist pene
theorize colonialism as an object wit
interested in colonialism have long stud
nial states, colonial transformations,
chies under colonial rule, and the em
sociology has likewise made colonialis
field of postcolonial studies across th
ics and effects (Ghandi 1998). So did
he not offer a systematic theory or su
arship on Bourdieu's work in Algeri
ethnographic experiences, and culture,
of colonialism. His sociology of colon
It is exactly this elision of colonialism
sectors. Postcolonial critic Edward Sa
colonialism. Others, influenced by th
larly charge his work as dangerously
Orientalist theories that portray non
overlook colonialism and the history
though Bourdieu's most widely cited
on - were forged from ethnographical
ratus ignores the colonial conditions
duce the imperial gaze (Connell 20
1 12). Sewell's (1992: 15-6) discussion int
lacks an adequate model of change be
ception of society" fails to take colo
(see also Connell 2007:41-3).
Go
The p
in Al
Bourd
about
atic t
cesses
like h
as or
Alger
of th
their
I begi
work
theor
by di
IMPERIAL FIELDS OF PRODUCTION

In studies of intellectuals like Bourdieu, it is by now common to put ideas in their context
and associated "knowledge practices" (Camic, Gross, and Lamont 201 1). But exactly whi
context? Traditional writings on Bourdieu situate him and his work within the class struc-
ture of France, the politics of the French academy, the Parisian intellectual scene, or philo-
sophical currents such as structuralism and phenomenology. Yet the new scholarship o
Bourdieu reminds us that Bourdieu, along with all other intellectuals, was firmly embedded
in the French colonial empire (Seibel 2004; Yacine 2003a, 2008a). This is importan
French writers like Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Raymond Aron did not ignore the
empire in their thinking. An entire generation of intellectuals in France was transformed b
the anticolonial Algerian movement and French decolonization (Le Sueur 2001). Jacqu
Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard, and Michel Foucault were all profoundly shaped by col
nial experiences, many having spent time in overseas French colonies (Ahluwalia 201
Bourdieu needs to be understood in this context too.
Empire/Knowledge
Specifically, for apprehending Bourdieu's sociology of colonialism, there are two fields that
need to be illuminated. The first is the French empire/knowledge complex and associated
debates. Just as Bourdieu began his work on French Algeria in the late 1950s, the French
empire had been under severe stress. The loss of Syria and Lebanon, revolt in Indochina,
bloody conflict in Madagascar, the 1956 Suez debacle, rising resistance from Tunisia and
Morocco - these and many other events of the 1950s had challenged the infrastructure of the
empire (Sorum 1977:2-12). They likewise challenged the ideological basis of French colo-
nialism, threatening to untangle the long-standing French colonial ideologies of "assimila-
tion" and its alternative model of "association" (Cooper 1997:77-8, 2002:50-3). In this
context, various actors searched for solutions. Reformists, which included French officials,
intellectuals, and colonial allies, looked for new colonial models to replace either assimila-
tion or association. In Algeria, governor-general Jacques Soustelle promoted the idea of
"integration": This would make Algerians French, officially equal without distinction while
maintaining their cultural and ethnic differences - a variant of "separate but equal" that
nonetheless subtly reinscribed the superiority of the French culture and identity (Le Sueur
2001:23-5). Alternatively, revolutionary elements called for immediate decolonization.
Nationalists in the colonies and metrop

with the communists (Sorum 1977:6-
the crisis of empire was to dissolve it e
These issues about the French empi
social science. Here arises the empire
himself an anthropologist, other Fre
societies, and the French imperial
2002:50-7; Sorum 1977). These connec
d'Ethnologie in 1925 had institutiona
ogy and colonialism (Conklin 2002; W
tieth century, scholarly categories h
French colonialism. Debates on "accu
summoned in debates over whether F
whether it was possible at all. Modern
port French colonialism. And the anthr
of analysis was deployed to support t
the starting point for justifying the a
In the 1950s, debates on colonialism
gist Michel Leiris (one of the founde
his followers were leveling critiques of
istration (Leiris 1950). As the deca
erupted, prominent French intellectual
Aron debated the desirability of the Fr
National Liberation Front (FLN; Paige
gedie algérienne (1957), which oppose
of Aron's earlier pro-empire stance,
and political community" (Le Sueur
Tillion, adviser to Soustelle, continue
colonialism. Her L'Algérie en 1957 (T
Camus and many others, relied upon
nous populations needed enlightened
aid. In her view, France had not been
her colonies; if she had, there would
see also Le Seuer 2001:145-50; Sorum
The New Colonial Studies
The other relevant field for understanding Bourdieu's early work is the field of "colonial
studies" (Cooper 2002). This was a new area of thinking that differed from prior discussions
about colonial policy. While the debates over policy had indeed entailed social scientific
thought on colonialism, they carried ethnological assumptions about "native" cultures and
were hitched to theoretical concepts like "modernization," "urbanization," "ethnic groups,"
and "acculturation." As Cooper (2002) notes, what was missing was a proper colonial stud-
ies , that is, theories and research that treated colonialism as a social object in its own right
and a force or structure that impacted social relations in definite ways. In the 1950s French
intellectual scene, such a subfield of colonial studies was only nascent, prying open the idea
of colonialism as an object and thus challenging the traditional disinterest among anthro-
pologists in colonialism.
Go 53
One p
Fanon
tity. F
beyond
nialism
Frenc
entirel
proper
practic
the co
uproot
abando
nialism
overco
Thoug
theori
of inv
([1957
tuted
While
withho
ferenc
thus c
identi
betwee
the ot
(Mann
Anoth
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famou
untouc
societi
simila
societi
throug
ics and
One of
Situat
an obj
pologi
most c
drew
ries. H
cultur
1966:2
"colon
lytic "
should
ers an
Bourdieu in the Empire

It is difficult to imagine that Bourdi
new colonial studies. By the time he st
ing moved from his provincial southw
and ethnography were already being
Bourdieu would later refer to in his work. And Bourdieu's intellectual mentors and friends
included Aron. Bourdieu also engaged with or read Fanon, Tillion, and Sartre (Bourdieu
1990b:7, 2003:18). Furthermore, Bourdieu was exposed to the debates and issues through
his personal relationships and interactions in Algeria. After all, he himself was part of the
colonial apparatus and its knowledge complex. He was sent to Algeria in 1955 for military
service, eventually landing office work at an air base and then in the information service
office in Algiers - in many ways the very core of the colonial knowledge regime. It is there
where he read the likes of Tillion and others while probing the colonial archive for the
information that would form the basis of his work The Algerians ([1958] 1961). It is there
too where he met nearly everyone who did scholarly work on Algeria, including ethnogra-
phers and colonial administrators (Heilbron 201 1:185; Sayad 2002:59-68).
After his service, Bourdieu taught at the University of Algiers, where he was exposed to
the "Orientalists" and pro-empire intellectuals who dominated the scene (Yacine 2008a:25-8).
Some of these figures were part of the very colonial anthropology that was under attack by
Leiris (Bourdieu 2000:8). During this time Bourdieu also conducted collaborative field
research, sponsored by ARDES (Association for Demographic, Economic, and Social
Research), which was the Algerian branch of the French INSEE (National Institute for
Statistics and Economic Studies; Seibel 2004). From this would come much of his other
writing on Algeria and his formative collaborative experiences that would, as Heilbron
(201 1) shows, provide a model for his later work but that also thrust him deeper into the
intellectual issues and debates on French colonialism. His collaborators and fellow
researchers included students, journalists, independent scholars, and Algerian intellectuals
like Mouloud Feraoun and Moloud Mammeri, all of whom likely exposed Bourdieu further
to critical discourse on French colonialism and who themselves had been writing their own
views of colonialism in Algeria (Yacine 1990). Feraoun, a novelist who helped spawned a
genre of "ethnographic novels," read and commented on Bourdieu's early work on Kabylia
(Bourdieu 2001 :ix; Yacine 2008a:40). Another of Bourdieu's collaborators, Abdelmalek
Sayad, would be Bourdieu's coauthor on Le Déracinement ( The Uprooting ; Bourdieu and
Sayad 1964) and would be an important friend and intellectual influence on him (Bourdieu
1998, 2008a; Sayad 2002).
Over the course of his readings and interactions, Bourdieu crafted a distinct position on
the debates over empire. On the one hand, he did not sit comfortably with the far left critics
of French colonialism and their Communist Party allies. His critique of Sartre's and
Fanon's stance on Algeria is exemplary: While Sartre and Fanon praised the FLN and saw
the peasantry as the socialist vanguard, Bourdieu was reserved, suggesting that their roman-
ticization of the socialist anticolonial revolutionary movement was blindly Utopian (Bourdieu
and Sayad 1964:170-75; Le Sueur 2001:251-55). His dissatisfaction with the sort of posi-
tion taken by Sartre and Fanon partly drove his research interests (Honneth, Kocyba, and
Schwibs 1986:39; see also Swartz 2013). On the other hand, Bourdieu was not pro-empire
He supported national independence and criticized the reformists' line. Bourdieu's early
writing on Algeria (Bourdieu [1958] 1961, 1959) targeted Tillion's assertions and those of
her political allies (it is not accidental that Bourdieu chose for some of his fieldwork the
very same society as Tillion did, the Chauouia of the Constantine region; Yacine 2004:296)
While Tillion and other proponents of French colonialism believed in reform, Bourdieu
Go
argue
line o
of Fa
l'Algé
Bourd
Franc
But B
crafte
BOURDIEU'S COLONIAL STUDIES
The " True Basis for the Colonial Order "

In his first major work, Sociologie de l'Algérie (1958), written while he was working in
information office in Algiers, Bourdieu already reveals his understanding of coloni
Colonialism is a system in its own right. He claims that "the colonial society is a s
whose internal necessity and logic it is important to understand" (p. 120). This was a dir
usage of the ideas of Balandier and Leiris. Indeed, in his subsequent piece, "Le Ch
civilisations" (1959), Bourdieu criticizes Tillion and employs the phrase "the colonial
ation," citing Balandier directly. Bourdieu likewise conceptualized colonialism as a co
tutive force. Taking up Leiris' s mantle, he critiqued anthropological studies (inc
Tillion's) for overlooking the colonial influence on putatively pristine native culture
here never existed in Algeria a truly isolated community, completely untouched b
colonial situation" (Bourdieu 1959:63). Likewise, in both "Le Choc des civilisations
Algeria 1960 ([1963] 1979) he attacks modernization theory for overlooking colon
and its attendant economic changes. Modernization theory falls short, he argues, because
occludes a "systematic examination of the influence such [colonial economic] transf
tions have on the system of social relations and dispositions" (Bourdieu [1963] 1979
Bourdieu thus drew on the new colonial studies to criticize the reformists' views on
Algeria and the anthropological models that underlay them. He also pushed the new colo-
nial studies further. First, he theorized colonialism as a system of racial domination. Colo-
nialism is a "relationship of domination" structured as sort of "caste system" - a "racial
segregation" that made colonial society "Manichean in form" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:120,
132-34). Social class is less important than race. For Bourdieu, in fact, racism was built into
the system of colonialism as a legitimating mechanism. "The function of racism," he wrote,
"is none other than to provide a rationalization of the existing state of affairs so as to make
it appear to be a lawfully instituted order" (p. 133). Second, Bourdieu theorized this system
of racial domination as facilitated by and grounded in coercion. Taking a swipe at mod-
ernization theory's implicit suggestion that modernization occurs by "choice," Bourdieu
highlighted how in colonialism "the exercise of the power of choice, which theoretically
belongs to those societies that confront one another, has not been granted to the dominated
society" (p. 120; see also Bourdieu [1963] 1979:32). By way of example, Bourdieu pointed
to systematic subjugation and "social vivisection" in French Algeria, which occurred
largely through a series of French policies enacted against the wishes of the population -
including policies regarding land and ownership beginning with the Senātus Consulte of
1863 (pp. 120-21). Bourdieu thus concluded that the basis of colonial domination is naked
force. The war for independence exposed "the true basis for the colonial order: the relation,
backed by force, which allows for the dominant caste to keep the dominated caste in a posi-
tion of inferiority." He added: "repression by force fit perfectly with the logical coherence
of the [colonial] system" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:146).
In short, Bourdieu theorized colonia

coercion. This was an original synthe
altogether. For instance, it added a We
Mannoni had thought of colonialism fo
and even Memmi ([1957] 1965:xii)
Bourdieu highlighted the colonial st
wrote about economic transformation,
racial privilege and naked force as th
andier's initial theorizations of the "colonial situation." While neither Leiris nor Balandier
would have denied the importance of racism or coercion, they had not put racial privilege
and coercion at the center of their analytic apparatus or built them into their theory of the
colonial system. This may be because Bourdieu, unlike Leiris and Balandier, wrote after the
revolutionary tumult of the mid-1950s and the violent repression that followed. His per-
sonal experiences in this context must have partly inspired his theorization. He recollects
how, on his trip as a soldier to Algeria, he was struck by the racism of his fellow soldiers,
many of whom had come from another French colony, Indochina. Their racism entailed, he
said, an entire "vision of the world" (Bourdieu 2008b:38). And Bourdieu's fieldwork made
the brutality of the French colonial regime palpable. The "suffering of the people" relocated
by the French colonial state, he later wrote, had deeply moved him; and many of these suf-
ferings he tried to capture with his camera (Bourdieu 2003:18). Through his fieldwork he
also encountered the horrors of the colonial settlers' apparatus of force. He later recollected
a peasant's description of the torture inflicted by the French army (Bourdieu 2008b:48).
And his own collaborators and friends Moulah Hennine (to whom he and Sayad dedicated
Le Déracinement) and Mouloud Feraoun (Bourdieu 2001 :ix) were murdered by the right-
wing branch of the army, the "counter-terrorist" group the Organisation de l'armée secrète
(OAS). These and other experiences, he later wrote, "have profoundly shaken me, to the
point sometimes of coming back in my dreams" (Bourdieu 1998:9; 2001 :ix; 2008a:359;
quote from 2008b:48). Bourdieu himself feared death threats from the right-wing advocates
of the settler regime. The threats compelled him to return to France (Yacine 2004:492). This
was an entire system of domination and coercion that Bourdieu himself witnessed - and
which he theorized in his early writings.
It is the case that Bourdieu's views regarding colonialism, race, and violence most
closely approximated Fanon's ([1961] 1968). Of all the new colonial theorists, Fanon was
probably the most explicit about the violent character of colonialism (Bamyeh 2010). The
"agents of [colonial] government," he wrote, "speak the language of pure force" (p. 38).
Even then, however, Fanon's Wretched of the Earth ([1961] 1968) and A Dying Colonial-
ism ([1959] 1965) were published after Bourdieu wrote Sociologie de l'algérie (1958).
Fanon's Black Skin , White Masks was published in 1952 but Fanon in that work said com-
parably little about colonialism as an object in itself. If anything, it is most likely Fanon's
A Dying Colonialism that influenced Bourdieu's theorization of colonialism as based on
violence (it was published before Bourdieu's essay "The Revolution within the Revolution"
wherein he articulated most of his theorization of the colonial system; Bourdieu [1958]
1961:145-92). As Haddour notes (2010:77), Bourdieu probably drew much from Fanon
regarding the racial character of colonialism, the nature of violence, and colonialism's
impact (see also Lane 2000:18). Yet Bourdieu's theorization was not simply mimetic.
Fanon in A Dying Colonialism was much more interested in theorizing the psychological
effect of colonialism and anticolonial revolution than he was in theorizing the nature of
colonialism itself. Bourdieu's theorization of colonialism as a "relationship of domination"
ultimately grounded in naked coercion - and having its own distinct logics - was more
Go
explic
coloni
politi
Sueur
One a
in his
that t
ical pr
To Bo
[1958
on rac
Bourd
seaml
ture .
[1961
analysis.
While Bourdieu's thinking on colonialism extended colonial studies at the time, it also
underpinned his own political views. For instance, for Bourdieu, it was naive to believe that
racism could be extricated from colonialism. Because racism was a built-in part of the colo-
nial system, it could never be eradicated without dismantling colonialism. "It would indeed
be useless to hope to abolish racism," he says in The Algerians , "without destroying the
colonial system of which it is the product; it would be the height of phariasaism to condemn
the racism and the racists spawned by the colonial situation without condemning the colo-
nial system itself' (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:150). This view formed the basis of his critique
of French colonial reformers like Tillion. Second, as Bourdieu theorized colonialism as
predicated upon force, he believed that revolution was inevitable. This facilitated his cri-
tique of those who classified the revolution as a contingent "explosion of aggressiveness
and hatred" or a matter of a few "ringleaders" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:149). Such a view
"implies an ignorance of the sociological facts and a refusal to recognize the situation in
which the revolution broke out and against which it was directed" (Bourdieu [1958]
1961:147). The fact that the revolution had mass support simply showed its "objective"
basis; it was something that the system of privilege and coercion - namely, colonialism
itself - had logically created. It followed that "only a revolution can abolish the colonial
system" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:146).
Colonial Interactionism
If colonialism is a system, it follows that like any social system, it also shapes social inter-
actions, meanings, and identity. Here we come to the other aspect of Bourdieu's sociology
of colonialism. In Bourdieu's analysis, social interactions and their attendant symbolic
processes take on a particular form in colonialism, such that the "colonial situation ... is
the context in which all actions must be judged" (Bourdieu 1958:149). This was a proto-
symbolic interactionism that was much more structuralist than its later incarnation in the
form of American symbolic interactionism (Blumer 1969). Interactions are not just deter-
mined by the contingent intentions or meanings of the actors but by the larger colonial
context (the "situation") in which they unfolded. Bourdieu again elaborates on the seminal
themes raised by Mammoni and Memmi. As noted, Mannoni had argued that the colo-
nized' s attitudes and behavior could best be understood within the context of the colonial
relationship. Because the colonized had been uprooted from their previous existence and
had no other option than to rely on

dependent on the colonizer. The depend
which, taken out of context, seemed
(Mannoni [1950] 1964). Bourdieu, un
mental causal mechanism of action, bu
structure shapes behavior and interacti
distinct and logically necessary roles f
ism necessitates racism and paternali
related stereotypical behaviors. The
"play the role of the Arab-as-seen-by
Loyal 2009).
In his introduction to Travail et travailleurs en Algérie , Bourdieu goes further, asserting
that the relationship of formal subordination means that the colonized are forced to be
excessively attentive to the colonizers' actions and expressions. Because they are depend-
ent, they have to be consistently attuned to "words or gestures" that "seem to us most
conventional - greeting, shaking hands, smile" but which to the colonized might be "signs
of recognition" (Bourdieu et al. 1963:264; Bourdieu, Robbins, and Gomme 2003:16). This
explains the stereotype that colonized peoples are overly sensitive. Their sensitivity is
merely the outcome of colonialism. The "sensitivity famously attributed to Algerians and
to colonized people in general is a product of the colonial system - more precisely of the
inequality in the relations between colonizers and colonized" (Bourdieu et al. 2003:18, note
20). Bourdieu thus accepts Mannoni's understanding of the colonized acting as "depend-
ents" on the colonizer. Indeed, such dependency is built into colonialism's structure: "[T]
he colonial system can function properly if the dominated society is willing to assume the
very negative nature or 'essence' (the 'Arab' cannot be educated, is improvident, etc.) that
the dominating society holds up for it as its destiny" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:134). But
Bourdieu adds to Mannoni the idea that the same structure of colonialism also produces
hostility. The colonial structure invited the colonized to emulate and desire the colonizer
but "made it actually impossible to imitate or equal the European." Thus, while Algerians
acted subserviently, their "answer to the European's protective paternalism was to assume
an attitude of dependency tinged with aggressiveness" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:161).
Bourdieu' s own fieldwork experiences likely served as a source for his ideas. In his section
on methodology in Travail et travalleurs en Algérie (Bourdieu [1963] 1979:257-68),
Bourdieu writes of the difficulties of doing ethnographic work in a colonial situation
exactly because colonialism is a "relationship of domination" and so interview subjects
viewed French interviewers differently than Algerian interviewers (pp. 159-62, 258).
Yet Bourdieu' s theory of colonial interactionism was not just about apprehending micro-
level interactions. It also conceptualized macro-colonial dynamics. First, the hostility felt
on the part of the colonized due to the colonial structure ultimately generates revolution.
After noting how the colonized are forced to act subserviently, however "tinged with
aggressiveness," Bourdieu claims that "the colonial situation thus creates the 'contempti-
ble' person at the same time that it creates the contemptuous attitude; but it creates in turn
a spirit of revolt against this contempt, and so the tension that is tearing the whole society
to pieces keeps on increasing" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:134). Incidents of interpersonal hos-
tility are merely portents of something bigger to come. Additionally, the relationship of
domination and the aggressiveness in response means that there is no hope of reconciliation.
"Because all of these actions are set in the context of the colonial system, relations between
persons always appear against the background of the hostility which separates groups and
constantly threatens to resurface to corrupt the meaning and the very existence of
Go 59
comm
meani
civilizi
fail. A
society
societ
Europ
power
ogy of
opmen
structu
failed
Identi
Anoth
culture
tional
since
"the c
criticiz
includes economic relations as well as cultural relations. Bourdieu attacks the moderniza-
tion and acculturation approach for "autonomizing certain levels of social reality," turning
everything into a matter of "culture," and overlooking "economic transformations" during
colonialism (Bourdieu [1963] 1979:30). In The Algerians, Bourdieu tracks those socioeco-
nomic transformations, showing how colonial policies regarding land and labor created a
"complete and radical disruption of the whole culture" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:119),
amounting to a "systematically induced disintegration" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:129). These
transformations during colonialism have not just economic but also cultural effects, serving
to restructure entirely "the system of social relations and dispositions" of the colonized
(Bourdieu [1963] 1979:30). Uprooted from the land and thus their traditional existence, the
colonial peasantry is faced with entering the new system of alienating capitalist social rela-
tions. Therefore, "an impersonal relationship between capital and labor" threatens to
replace traditional agriculture, but not completely. In other words, the colonial economy
means that two worlds exist side by side: an "impersonal and abstract" system of monetary
value and "the former values of prestige and honor" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:144).
In "Le Choc des civilisations," Bourdieu refers to this as a "duality of social regulations"
brought on by the introduction of the colonizers' culture (Bourdieu 1959:59). In his later
work with Sayad, Bourdieu continues this theme with the concept "cultural sabir." The
sabir is caught between two worlds: "two mutually alienating universes" (Bourdieu and
Sayad 1964:164). Bourdieu's own fieldwork experiences likely exposed him to the idea of
such hybridity. "I was often helped in my fieldwork," he recollects, "... by such characters
. . . who [occupied an] ambiguous location between two social conditions and two social
conditions" (Bourdieu 2008b: 56-7). His interactions with local intellectuals like Mammeri
must have also been productive: Mammeri's (1955) famous second novel, Le Sommeil du
Juste , narrates the story of a sabir-like character who is trapped between traditional Alge-
rian society and a new postcolonial modernity. And his collaborator and friend Feraoun was
writing around the same time about the anxieties associated with being a cultural hybrid
trapped between cultures (Le Sueur 2001:28-9).
Bourdieu likewise argues that colonial

hybrid cultures: The colonized peasantr
dispositions, rooted in subsistence ag
abstract value. With this he offers a n
an approach that fuels his critique o
and acculturation. As "the very logi
(1964:161), "has produced a new type
gists' simplistic theories of culture and
incomplete. The colonized do not be
demned ... to the interferences and i
Sayad 1964:168).
Bourdieu's model of colonial culture
cized views of the revolutionary peas
(see also Lane 2000:18-9; Le Sueur 200
a fully assimilated or "acculturated"
have it, neither is it a forward-look
insisted. Instead, the structure of co
creates split identities that induce conf
The man between two worlds ... is exp

of the traditional systems of sanction
standards. . . . [T]his man, cast betwee
of double inner life, is a prey to frust
constantly being tempted to adopt eith
of rebellious negativism. (Bourdieu
While revolution may be a necessary

consciousness presumed by Fanon
advanced socialist consciousness) is n
Bourdieu's analysis of colonial cult
modernization/acculturation theory
acculturation studies posited a simple a
to another, Bourdieu's model capture
cultural transformations induced by co
tant sociological corrective to moder
plexity to cultures and how colonialism
formation and expression," as Bourd
way, Bourdieu again extends Balandie
lating it with the focus on identity an
Bourdieu, finally, articulated a proces
ing both the acculturation models on o
nial situation by Balandier. Mainstrea
as stages of conflict, adjustment, sy
1966:51; Redfield, Linton, and Hersk
a new subjectivity among the coloni
ticization of the postcolonial revolut
nial culture helped create the condi
revolution. The peasant, uprooted fro
goes an awakening. Under colonialism,
part of his "tradition" is cast into new
Go
being
there
scious
betwe
"colon
mean
(Bour
impo
optio
"the d
own t
tional
In "T
Alger
and p
by th
grant
and t
Both
endow
devise
signs
foreig
1961:1
symb
"cultu
respo
Weste
himse
techn
colon
ident
becom
MAKING BOURDIEU
We can now see that Bourdieu did not only write about Algeria, he also theorized coloni
ism as a system, explicated its effects, and analyzed colonial cultures and identities. Bu
how does this early body of thought relate to Bourdieu' s later corpus? Scholars have begun
to detect how Bourdieu's early field experience in Algeria shaped his later work (Calhou
2006; Goodman and Silverstein 2009; Heilbron 2011:184-89; Reed-Danahay 2004;
B. Robbins 2005:16-20; Wacquant 2004; Yacine 2008a, 2008b), but what about his writ-
ings on colonialism in particular? I suggest here that Bourdieu's early thinking on colonial-
ism (and not just his ethnographic experience in Algeria in itself) served as a generative site
for his concept habitus , his relational sociology (as most clearly discerned in his conce
field), and his reflexive sociology.
Habitus and the Pasyan Empaysanné

Habitus, the "durable, transposable dispositions" or "structured structures predisposed
function as structuring structures," is perhaps one of Bourdieu's most known if not controvers
concepts (Bourdieu 1990a:53). He first u

ants in Béarn, France (Hammoudi 20
development occurred even before 19
colonialism in the late 1950s (Sapiro
observes that Bourdieu's idea of habi
phy's notion of "tradition" (Hammo
culture and colonialism were mount
"tradition" (even if it was critical of co
traces of the habitus concept can be se
2011:193-94; Sapiro 2004). In "Choc d
intimates the idea in his critique of
tion, arguing that "culture" is a multif
ber of the community" and that "is
deposited like a sediment, a preconsciou
being thought, much like language" (
of a critique of anthropology's elisio
strongly anticipates his idea of habitus
practical "choices" that are "non-con
ring to the "preconscious intention" as
tence on habitus as a "system" and
wake of Saussure in the French acade
"system."8
In other parts of Bourdieu's early wor
His idea of colonialism as constituting
tus concept precisely: The traditiona
easily cast off his or her prior socializ
ism. In other words, the peasant canno
(1958: 144) refers to as "the implicit pr
Hence the idea of the paysan empay
Danahay (2004:98) explains, "locked
uses this concept to explain the peasant
same idea to similarly explain the A
Danahay 2009:135-36).
In fact, this idea of the paysan emp
vital for Bourdieu's thinking on colo
and Sayad 1964, 2004), Bourdieu sugges
namely, the structuring power of the
revolution was fatally romantic. For
sedimented past - including their "m
postcolonial present, preventing Algeri
ern worldview that Bourdieu assumes t
fact we know," they write (Bourdieu
reality do not necessarily transform th
ing and thinking outlive a change in
liberated from the colonist without be
has nurtured in him."9 In Bourdieu's
refer to the mediation between the col
latter' s promise. Only through a comp
can a proper change occur in the wake
Go
and to
seeks
the p
In sh
cultur
the h
that h
Sayad
"habit
cies on
navig
rel ,
1964:
notes,
writi
habitu
longed
Bourd
ism, c
wrote
1963
[1963]
turati
cultur
sition
does h
clash
ship b
a hist
by re
dispos
was t
habitu
Béarn
impli
Colon
Besid
critiq
ties a
Its pr
sional
tions"
Wacqu
to or
Cassi
Bourd
on art, religion, and the French inte

of its seeds.11
For instance, in drawing from Baland
logic, Bourdieu isolates colonialism as
nial situation" cannot be reduced to o
field, for fields are "specific and ir
1992:97). Likewise, the "colonial situ
colonized; hence Bourdieu's idea of c
two distinct, juxtaposed 'communit
Bourdieu's later conceptualization of
dominant and subordinate positions
Throughout his discussion of colonia
alism as a field and deployed relational
or "the colonial situation" is like a f
determines the colonized' s practices an
action - is not some essential feature wi
in the field of colonial subordination and domination. The colonized act and react in relation
to the colonizers and vice versa; they do not act out of internal substances or essences but
only in relation to each other. Bourdieu thus argues that the stereotypes of Algerians and
other colonized peoples as overtly sensitive does not refer to an intrinsic characteristic but
rather a relational position of subordination. Furthermore, it is the relationship of colonial-
ism that "creates the 'contemptible' person [the colonized Arab] at the same time that it
creates the contemptuous attitude [the colonizing French]" (Bourdieu [1958] 1961:134).
Kurt Lewin, one of the originators of the field idea, insisted on the field principle that "[i]
nstead of abstracting one or another isolated element from a situation, the meaning of which
cannot be understood without reference to the total situation, the theory of the field starts
with a characterization of the whole situation" (Vandenberghe 1999:51-2). Similarly,
Bourdieu's appropriation of Balandier requires that "the colonial situation" - defined by the
"relationship of domination" - be taken into account if the analyst is to understand anything
from the colonized' s "aggressiveness" or the colonizers' racism to the failure of French
reforms and colonial aid.
The colonial situation is like a field, secondly, in the sense that it is replete with struggle
and conflict. Bourdieu insists that an emphasis on struggle and conflict is what differenti-
ates his field approach from other theoretical concepts or approaches, such as Luhmann's
"systems" (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992:102). This same emphasis on struggle and con-
flict is also a part of Bourdieu's theory of the colonial situation. As seen, the relationship
between colonizer and colonized is always "tinged" with aggressiveness. And colonialism's
violence is eventually met, in kind, with anticolonial resistance and ultimately revolution.
This emphasis on conflict underpins Bourdieu's critique of French colonial reformers like
Tillion. As conflict is built into the very constitution of colonialism, no amount of reform
or aid under the aegis of colonial rule will temper much less eradicate French- Algerian ten-
sion. Bourdieu's theorization of colonialism as a field thereby permits an analysis of colo-
nialism's logic as well as its limits.
Reflexivity and Colonial Ethnography

Reflexivity is paramount for Bourdieu, underlying his views on how sociology itself should
be conducted (Bourdieu 1990b: 177-98; Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992:36, 68, 198-200).
But from where does it come? While some trace its intellectual genealogy, others see it as
Go
arisin
1992:4
Danah
Heilbr
collab
(2008a
try al
Yet t
ticular
be see
In the
tant w
coloni
Bourd
polog
appara
that t
Frenc
pologi
est un
1950:
anthr
ture
knowl
inter
Bourd
critiq
must
"unth
(Bour
socio
1992:7
Frenc
Bourd
ing th
Not o
vail e
more
"work
washi
an "in
also B
This
Bourd
(Bour
tures
to act
practi
such.
"Socia
. . . form from which he benefits eve

other interpersonal relationship, the
against the background of the relation
established between the colonizing s
The solution Bourdieu offered is not

not argue
that knowledge is impossible
a narcissistic introspection (Bourdieu
nized societies and colonized peoples
tion of the colonized as it is determ
characteristic of the colonial system
necessitates a relational perspective o
bare the sociological conditions that
delimit the thinkable and predeterm
frames his ethnography of Algerian w
cultural embeddedness" in the coloni
sible by "official sanction" from Frenc
ethnographers from France and loca
In short, Bourdieu' s early thinking o
ing in a foreign country - or even just
lem of working in a colonial society
Algeria - not just Algeria. It emerged f
tiques of colonial ethnography that pre
future direction when - in his introdu
ing Leiris on colonial anthropology,
anthropology in colonialism] differe
studying his own society to his own
that in 1975, one of Bourdieu's earliest
was given at a colloquium on "Ethno
Bourdieu articulates the problematic as
the relationship of social science to the
not to sociology in Paris or metropolit
science of colonized and decolonized
of state-sponsored colonial ethnogra
andier before him had critiqued (Bou
CONCLUSION: BOURDIEU AND POSTCOLONIAL SOCIOLOGY

Bourdieu rose to prominence in the English-speaking intellectual world during t
and early 1990s (Saliaz and Zavisca 2007). Yet, this was exactly the moment when
nial studies" and "postcolonial studies" in the United States also grew (Coop
Ghandi 1998). And as colonial studies and postcolonial theory spread, sociology fa
criticisms. Scholars working in or inspired by postcolonial studies targeted socio
occluding the history of imperialism and colonialism, reproducing imperial epistemic
tures and Eurocentrism, and failing to provide a critique of Western colonialism and
domination (Alatas 2006a; Amin 1989; Chua 2008; Connell 1997; Go 2012; Kempe
Mawani 2009; Magubane 2005; Seidman 1996; Seth 2009).12
As noted already, Bourdieu's work has been part of the sociological corpus suf
from the postcolonial critique. But this article has argued that Bourdieu's work shoul
Go 67
be cast
ings"
Bourd
also ap
intera
Algeria
capital
based
coloni
part of
his lat
By fo
impor
work
that sc
2010)
ductive
of soc
part o
that r
and M
First,
ies and
His th
Guha's
Furthe
wrestl
toward
ism, w
in the
of hyb
two di
realm
coloniz
do Bou
who ar
Their a
While
not th
socioec
play of
The ot
that it
sound
theory
metro
that ar
cerns a
tions o
loss are some of the key experiences

ingly suggests that we draw from non
these matters. Connell (2007:165-91)
the "power, violence and pain of coloni
Bourdieu' s early work is not far off.
and critiqued colonialism directly - the
sion based on violence. And it analyz
identity that followed from colonial in
southern theory.14
All of this suggests an important p
scholars have tried to advance postcolo
centric sociology in other countries.
theorists in Europe or North Ameri
theorists and theories in colonized soci
enous" sociology approach, as Alatas
summons the nascent sociologies o
Rabindranath Tagore in India, Abd al-R
can oral tradition (Akikowo 1986; A
can turn to more recent scholars and t
school or Jalal Al-e Ahmad. Yet the
suggests that mining the global south
Third World societies," as Alatas (200
approach is vital. But our analysis sugg
sits comfortably with southern theory
theory from our canon. It therefore su
certainly involve searching for alterna
is, within its own putatively "tradition
we might hastily classify "Western"
theory in the first place. For our ex
should not be the racial, ethnic, or nat
theory. In other words, at stake are no
2005). Bourdieu's theory of colonialism
analysis within Algeria of colonialism
violence directly. Given this, can we un
tualized," and "Western" rather than
the colonial context of Algeria?
This is important because, as sugges
of those theorists hastily classified as
colonial experience than our conven
2009). Yet we continue to occlude th
understanding. A Bourdiesian sociolo
sociology - would require that we re
colonialism and imperialism to which
served as its precondition (Connell 1
and "sociology of sociologists," himse
still part of the main obstacles of socia
. . . the unconscious is the forgetting o
its history, the unconscious, are the so
Go
the p
By re
of th
Silve
Yacin
ism in
what
Bourdieu.
NOTES
1 . Goodman and Silverstein (2009) offer the best recent collection.
2. Yacine (2003a, 2003b, 2004, 2005, 2008a) proves the rule, showing some of the ways in which Bourdieu
was influenced by colonial studies at the time (see also D. Robbins 2003) while also giving some insights
on Bourdieu's thinking on colonialism, however not systematically. I build on those insights while more
fully uncovering Bourdieu's theory of colonialism and associated issues.
3. According to Le Sueur (2001:238), this was "one of the most influential theoretical contributions to
the question of identity vis-à-vis colonialism and decolonization."
4. Bourdieu's analysis was more akin to some aspects of Redfield, Linton, and Herksovits's (1936)
acculturation model, but that model only briefly alluded to conflict (e.g., the "psychic conflict"
inflicted by culture clash).
5. However, after liberation, the peasant still has to face the realities of the "two worlds." The hybrid
culture persists and this prevents a fully "modern" socialist consciousness from being fully realized
(Bourdieu and Sayad 2004:466-78); hence Bourdieu's critique of Fanon.
6. The concept there was not a fully developed theoretical concept; it referred mainly to a bodily habitus.
More conceptual development would only come later. In 1 967 he develops habitus as a sort of reposi-
tory for creativity; in the 1970s he fully exposes it for its theoretical complexity (Bourdieu 1977;
Hammoudi 2009:21 1; Reed-Danahay 2004:96-7).
7. As an intellectual notion, the idea of "intention" or "choices" here likely refers to Merleau-Ponty' s
example of the "game" and "practical intentions." See Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992:20-2) and
Crossley (2001).
8. Lacan (1977: 1 1 1-36) later theorized the "unconscious" as "like a language" and language as a "system"
in the Saussurean sense.
9. This notion in turn anticipates Bourdieu's idea of the "hysteresis effect," which Bourdieu later used to
discuss habitus and its long-lasting structuring effects (Bourdieu 1977:78). The hysteresis effect refers
exactly to the disjuncture between habitus and field brought on by transformations in the original field
or exposure to a new one.
10. As Hammoudi (2009:206-08) highlights, Bourdieu also traces three different Algerian responses to
the intrusion of the colonial capitalist economy; each of these responses correlates with the class posi-
tion of the Algerians. This clearly anticipates his approach to habitus in Distinction (1984; see
Bourdieu et al. 1963).
11. The field concept in Bourdieu's work is developed in The Logic of Practice but barely mentioned in
Outline of a Theory of Practice (see Swartz 1997:1 18-19). Heilbron (201 1:199) points out that it first
appeared in his 1966 article on intellectual fields (Bourdieu 1966).
12. While some sectors of sociology, like Marxist-influenced dependency theory and world-systems
theory, escaped these charges, others did not.
13. There are similarities also with W. E. B. Du Bois's "double consciousness."
14. Connell (2007: 166-72) points to the work of subaltern studies scholars like Ranajit Guha (1997), and
as seen previously, Bourdieu's theory of colonialism as a social form based on racial domination sits
well with some of Guha's own thinking. And Connell (2006:257) suggests that Bourdieu's early work
on Algeria contained "possibilities for a different structure of knowledge"; I am arguing here that it did
indeed and that his sociology of colonialism is one result.
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Julian Go is associate professor of sociology at Boston University. His books include Patterns of E
The British and American Empires, 1688-Present (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and Am
Empire and the Politics of Meaning: Elite Political Cultures in the Philippines and Puerto Rico dur
Colonialism (Duke University Press, 2008). He is currently writing about postcolonial and g
sociology.

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Decolonizing Bourdieu: Colonial and Postcolonial Theory in Pierre Bourdieu's Early Work

American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and

Colonial and Postcolonial stx.sagepub.com

-Edward Said (1989:223)

- Pierre Bourdieu (1959:63).

'Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

the body, immigration, the media, a

IMPERIAL FIELDS OF PRODUCTION

Nationalists in the colonies and metrop

The New Colonial Studies

Bourdieu in the Empire

BOURDIEU'S COLONIAL STUDIES

The " True Basis for the Colonial Order "

In short, Bourdieu theorized colonia

had no other option than to rely on

Bourdieu likewise argues that colonial

The man between two worlds ... is exp

While revolution may be a necessary

Habitus and the Pasyan Empaysanné

concepts (Bourdieu 1990a:53). He first u

on art, religion, and the French inte

Reflexivity and Colonial Ethnography

. . . form from which he benefits eve

The solution Bourdieu offered is not

CONCLUSION: BOURDIEU AND POSTCOLONIAL SOCIOLOGY

loss are some of the key experiences

Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 2000. "Entre amis" (Friends). Awal 21:5-10.

Harding, Sandra. 2005. "Negotiating with

Yacine, Tassadit. 2005. "Bourdieu et l'Algéri

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