Cataloging & Classification Quarterly

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Cataloging Pierre Bourdieu's Books

Rubén U. Alvarado MS, MLS

To cite this article: Rubén U. Alvarado MS, MLS (1994) Cataloging Pierre Bourdieu's Books,
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 19:1, 89-105, DOI: 10.1300/J104v19n01_07

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1300/J104v19n01_07

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 Cataloging Pierre Bourdieu's Books
Ruben Urbizaglstegui Alvarado

ABSTRACT. The problems of culture and ideology have been stu-

died in phenomenology, structuralism, and historical materialism,
but they fail to make connections between theory and social reality.
To solve this situation, Pierre Bourdieu proposes the Theory of Prac-
tice. This Theory of Practice, together wilh his notions of Cultural
capital, Field, Habitus, Social reproduction, Symbolic power, and so
on, are the subjects of 23 books written by Bourdieu up to 1991.
Because the purpose of Library of Congress Subject Headings
(LCSH) is to guide users to lhe subject(s) of a given book, one would
expect to find those conceptual categories present in h e subject
headings assigned to Bourd~eu'sbooks. This paper is a study of the
subject headings given to those 23 books, and their different transla-
tions into English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, comprising 89
records in OCLC as of December 1991. However, due to lack of
availability one book and its respective record were eliminated, re-
ducing the universe to 22 books and 88 records. It was found that
most of the books erroneously received headings that do not corre-
spond to their content, as the headings were assigned from the func-
t~onalistparadigm. In general, LCSHs ignore the conceptual catego-
ries of other paradigms, do not match the current vocabulary used by
social scientists, and are ideologically biased.

RuMn Urbizagfistegui Alvarado, MS,MLS, is Associate Librarian, University

of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA 92517. He received an MLS in Library
Science, University of Pittsburgh, PA; and in Information Science, Federal Uni-
versity of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Master in Sociology. University of Brasilia,
Brazil; and in Social Communication, University of Brasilia, Brazil.
This research was morally supponed by colleagues at the Rivera Libraly,
University of California-Riverside. The author acknowledges Nancy Douglas.
John Zovickian, Renata Gugelberger, and especially Shelley Lane, who had the
patience to read the original version and make suggestions to improve the final
draft.
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, Vol. 19(1) 1994
6 1994 by The Haworth Press. Inc. All rights reserved. 89
90 CATALOGING & CLASSIFICATION QUARTERLY

INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

This paper addresses the notion that subject headings do not

always adequately express the subject content of monographs or
other library materials. Whether due to cataloger error or inadequa-
cy in the authoritative subject list used, this deficiency makes it
difficult for library patrons to access accurate information. Prior
research found certain inadequacies among books and monographs
classified and catalogued by OCLC participants. For example, in
1975 Ryansl carried out a study at the Kent State University Library
to see how many and in what fields errors most frequently occurred.
She analyzed over 700 OCLC monographic records and found that
40% of them needed corrections in order to meet the standards.
Errors occurred most frequently in the subject heading fields, and
were present in 31% of the incorrect records studied.
Between November 1979 and July 1980, ~ u d s o nstudied~ 1,017
OCLC monographic records at the State University of New York at
Albany Library. She found that revisions were necessary in 43% of
the records, and that errors were found most frequently in the sub-
ject heading fields. In 1987 Tull & Halverson3 at the Processing
Division of the Sterling C. Evans Library at Texas A&M University,
carried out a study to evaluate subject headings assigned by OCLC
member libraries. They studied 9,669 records by type of imputing
library: research (3,431 records), academic (4,196 records) and
public (656 records). The authors found that the percentage of
revisions did not differ greatly among the three types of libraries. In
1988 another research was conducted at the same library by Ven-
trell, Halverson and ~ ~ to 1evaluate1 ~how Library of Congress
Subject Headings (LCSH) were assigned to theses and dissertations
in humanities, social sciences and sciences. Students were asked to
select up to five LCSHs, and if no LCSHs seemed applicable, they
were required to suggest other terms more appropriate to their
theses and dissertations. Researchers found that there was a 64.3%
coincidence between LCSH chosen by the students and those used
by catalogers (with those selected by catalogers being too general).
It was further noted that the application of specific entries was
difficult and frustrating. This statement was confmed by the stu-
dents' suggestions for including other terms, where 61.01% were
 RubPn Urbizagdstegui Alvarado 91

more specific. Also the authors found that many of these sugges-
tions resembled key terms, and 28.2% contained terms that were
useful to the cataloguer.
The evidence presented above have led some librarians to criticize
the LC subject headings practices, and as Holley and Killheffes
state: "The first cause of dissatisfaction lies with the terminology
itself. Many headings do not reflect current American terminoiogy,
but the Library of Congress has been slow to make changes because
of the large number of records which would need correction." In
spite of the fact that many libraries provide cross-references to
direct users to find what they want or need, the dissatisfaction still
persists. The researchers also pointed out that "LC assigns subject
headings in such a way that valuable information within many items
is lost. The first complaint is that 1.7 subject headings per item is
not sufficient, especially in contrast to the wealth of subject access
points that are lost because the specific subject headings for the
smaller sections are replaced by a general subject heading which
covers the whole work." Furthermore, the problems of specificity
and precision come into play when terminology is discussed. For
example, Holley and ~ i l l h e f f e saffirm that "the Library of Con-
gress is less specific than many would like when it comes to
establishing new terminology. LCSH is conservative by nature since
it reflects LC's cataloging mostly of monographs; but new ter-
minology may be well-established in journal articles, the news
media, and other sources before full-length books are written.
Furthermore, the new material may be collected under the already-
established, older, less-exact subject heading while LC catalogers
wait to see whether enough material will be published to justify a
new heading."
Some authors suggest replacing the LCSH system by PRECIS as
a way to guarantee and solve the subject access problem without a
drastic revision of the LCSH policy. Henige6, for example, pointed
out that "in recent years either the Library of Congress (LC) classi-
fication scheme or its accessing apparatus, the Library of Congress
Subject Headings (LCSH), have [hardly] escaped criticism, much
of it quite scathing and most of it justified." Apparently the criti-
cisms have been centered on its Euro-centric cast as well as on the
nature, organization, and terminology of subject headings. The au-
92 CATALOGING & CLASSIFlCATION QUARTERLY

thor calls attention to the inability or unwillingness of LCSH to

conform to simple historical reality, and gives several ironic exam-
ples of inaccuracies and inconsistencies in formulation of subject
headings.
In spite of all of this criticism, as Mandel and IZhee7 affimed,
"The wide adoption of the MARC format and the extraordinary
growth of shared cataloging utilities attest to North American li-
braries' dependence on shared bibliographic records. The original
creation of standard bibliographic records is a complex and labor-
intensive process." Furthermore, catalogers would have to agree
with Tull and ~alverson's~ statement that "cataloging departments
must weight the goal of highest quality cataloging against the need
to make materials available to the patron in a timely cost effective
fashion."

PURPOSE AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS RESEARCH

The study of culture and ideology, as a central subject of social
science, can be divided into three theoretical schools: phenomenol-
ogy, structuralism, and historical materialism. These schools are
based on the theoretical propositions of Max Weber, Emile Durk-
heim, and Karl Marx. However, in some sense, all of them have
methodological deficiencies and fail to make a connection between
theory and social reality. Faced with this lack of connection be-
tween theory and reality, Pierre Bourdieu makes another proposi-
tion which he calls structural constructivism or constructivist struc-
turalism.
Bourdieu's theories have impacted the social sciences, and as a
result he has become one of the most important living sociologists.
He has produced substantial studies in sociology of education, so-
ciology of science, sociology of culture, cultural anthropology, Ka-
byle society, French students and universities, language as a social
phenomenon, social mobility, and contemporary culture. Finally,
after almost 33 years of work, American academe is starting to
discover his work, "Not only sociologists and anthropologists,-but
- and culmal studies schol-
literary theorists, art historians,. linnuists.
ars h&e been drawn to Bourdieu's social theory by its range, pow-
er, and subtlety."8 In the last 10 years translations, commentaries,
analysis, and applications of his theories have been growing. For
example, in 1989, Reproduction in education, society and culture
was declared a citation classic by the Social Science Citation Index
(SSCI) which indicates that this book, in its English and French
versions, has been cited in over 215 and 290 publications respec-
tive~~.~
Bourdieu's intellectual production is causing commotion, dissat-
isfaction, and misunderstanding among American academics, and
therefore, it is expected that these misunderstandings will also have
repercussions in subject cataloging as well.
Does the subject cataloging adequately reflect the content of
Pierre Bourdieu's books?
Could some of the subject headings mislead a user trying to
retrieve the exact subjects for Bourdieu's theories?
The intention of this paper is to answer these questions since it
seems logical that if Bourdieu is polemical in relation to his theo-
ries, he will be also polemical when cataloging his books in a given
library system, especially since there is a recognition that "Ameri-
can research is, unfortunately, almost totally ahistorical and quite
often insulated from this rich past of European work" as it is well
pointed out by ~ ~ ~ 1If ethis. Iassumption
~ holds for libraries as
well, it may suggest that the American library science field also has
its foundations based in the positivist and functionalist approaches,
and therefore its subject categories will reflect these approaches
when subject cataloging Bourdieu's books. This paper will investi-
gate this idea, testing it to see whether the subject headings have
adequately reflected the content of Pierre Bourdieu's books or mis-
leads the user looking for Bourdieu's theories.

THEORETICAL MODEL
The principal objective of this study is to evaluate the adequacy
of the subject headings assigned to the books of a single author,
Pierre Bourdieu, and in fact, assessing the adequacy of LCSH itself
in this area. By taking as a basic variable of study the relation
between subject cataloging and adequateness, it is possible to for-
94 CATALOGING & CLASSIFICATION QUARTERLY

mulate some statements to be researched and analyzed, as proposed

in the following theoretical model:

Subject Cataloging-b ~de~uateness

CONCEPTS AND HYPOTHESIS

Adequateness is a dependent variable. It refers to the degree in

which LCSH and a description of the content of Pierre Bourdieu's
books coincide. Ideally, each of Bourdieu's books in the OCLC
database will be adequately described in content, and this adequate-
ness should be evident in its subject headings. This research at-
tempts to verify and evaluate these adequacies in relation to the
independent variable of the theoretical model.
Subject cataloging is an independent variable. On a given book,
one c& suppose-that a cataloger can achieve a certain degree of
adequateness in subject cataloging by following the prescriptions
determined by the LCSH; it should be possible to evaluate this
adequateness through the analysis of the subject headings assigned
to each of Bourdieu's books. If there is a close coincidence between
LCSH and the content of the book, it will get a high degree of
adequateness and vice versa. Since some prior research, such as that
carried out by ~ ~ a n ands l ~udson*,had found that the subject
cataloging had deficiencies and required correction, it is possible to
speculate that these deficiencies will continue on when applied to
Bourdieu's books; hence, hypothesis can be stated as follows:

Hypothesis: The subject headings assigned to Bourdieu's

books are inadequate.
 Rub611Urbizagdstegui Alvarado

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Records of Pierre Bourdieu's books input into OCLC until De-
cember 31, 1991, were taken as units for analysis, and 106 records
under Pierre Bourdieu's name were located. Of these 106 records,
89 corresponded to 23 of Bourdieu's books and 17 to works about
Bourdieu's theories and books which he edited or for which he
wrote a preface. These 17 records were eliminated because they
were not significant to this research. Similarly, 1 record for La crise
du leninisme was eliminated due to its unavailability.
The remaining twenty-two books by Pierre Bourdieu, together
with their relevant 88 records, were taken for analysis. These books
had been entered into OCLC by diverse library members. The uni-
verse included original publications, translations, and the different
editions of the same work. When the original was unavailable, the
translated version was used for analysis. These twenty-two books,
classified according to titles, language, and number of records, are
shown in the Table 1. Among them, 44 records (50%) represented
books in the original French version, and of the translations, 32
records (36%) were English, 6 records (7%) German, 5 (5.7%)
Spanish, and 1 (1.1%) Portuguese. Identifying the subject content
of each book entailed a careful reading of the books themselves;
book reviews published in different specialized journals; and sever-
al essays on Pierre Bourdieu's theories. To identify translations of
the same book and those books which were published with different
titles, the booklet Pierre Bourdieu: a bibliography was especially
helpful.l2
To measure the degree of adequateness of the subject headings, a
scale was constructed, as shown in Table 2. If a record contains a
legitimate LCSH and expresses the content of the book, the subject
cataloging is categorized as adequate; deficient, if the headings only
partially express the content of the book; and inadequate, when it
does not express the content of the book.

FINDINGS
Currently, Bourdieu's studies o n French higher education are
receiving much attention from the area of sociology of education.
96 CATALOGING & CLASSIFICATION QUARTERLY

TABLE 1. Bourdieu's books according to titles, languages and number of

records in OCLC
--------------------------*---------------------
LANGUAGES
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -P - -TOTAL
TITLES F
--------.
E S G

Algerie 60 [i.e.soixante] 1 2 - - - 3
Un art moyen 2 2 - 2 - 6
CAmour de l'arl 4 3 - - - 7
Ce que parler veu dire 1 2 - - - 3
Choses dites 1 2 1 - - 3
Les etudianb et leurs etudes I - - - - 1
Esquisse dune theorie de la pratlque 1 2 - 1 - 4
Le deracinement 2 - 1 - - 3
La distinction 1 4 - 1 - 6
Les heritiers 4 1 2 - - 7
Homo academicus 1 3 - - - 4
Lewn sur la lewn/Lewn inaugurale 2 - - - - 2
Le metier de waologue 4 1 1 - - 6
La noblesse d'etat I - - - - 1
COntologie politique de M. Heidegger 1 2 1 1 - 5
Questions de sociologie 3 - 1 - - 4
La reproduction 4 3 - - - 7
Rapport pedagogiqueet wmmunication I - - - - 1
Sociologie de I'Argelie 7 1 - - - 8
Le sens pratique 2 2 - - - 4
Two Bourdieu texts - 2 - - - 2
A economia das trocas simbolicas - - - 1
---------------------.-*----.--------------*----
1

TOTAL 44 32 6 5 1 88

F - French
E=
S
G=
- English
Spanish
Gennan
P= Portuguese

But, sociology of education represents only one dimension of his

diverse work. According to Swartzt3 "he [Bourdieu] is primarily
concerned with exploring and explaining the multitude of ways in
which cultural phenomena and practices relate to social structures
of power. This orientation has led him to write on a variety of
 Rub& Urbizagdslegui Alvarado

TABLE 2 . Measurement Scale

Categories Specifications

Adequate Subject headings match

book's content 100%

Deficient Subject headings partially

represent book's content

Inadequate subject headings do not

represent b o o k content

subjects, ranging from cultural practices, such as museum atten-

dance and photography, to the sociology of intellectuals and sci-
ence." However, this wide variety of subjects faUs short in the
general areas of sociology of education, sociology of culture, so-
ciology of science, sociology of knowledge, sociology of art, so-
ciology of sports, etc. Because these diverse subjects are present in
his books, one would also expect to find them expressed in the
LCSHs assigned to them. However, in relation to the subject cata-
loging it was found that in only one case (4.5%) were there coinci-
dences between the books' content and LC subject headings. In five
(22.7%) of them, this process was deficient, and in sixteen (72.7%)
of the books analyzed, the headings chosen did not express ade-
quately the books' subject. In conclusion, there was no agreement
when choosing LCSHs to express the subject of the books. It was
clear that most of Bourdieu's books were given headings that did
not correspond to their content. These facts confirmed the hypothe-
sis that the subject cataloging of Bourdieu's books was inadequate.
The classification of this adequateness can be seen in Table 3.
It is evident that librarians and social scientists are using different
vocabularies to typify subject contents of the same book. This fact
could be an indication of a lack of communication between academ-
ics and librarians, and that this barrier might be creating repercus-
sions in the subject cataloging area. It should also be a warning for
librarians to acquaint themselves to the common vocabulary used
among social scientists, and furthermore to be specifically aware
that these same situations could be happening in others areas. Pa-
98 CATALOGING & CLASSIFICATION QUARTERLY

TABLE 3. Adequateness/lnadequatenessaccording to titles

TITLES A D I

Algerie 60 [i.e.soixante] - D -
Un art moyen - - I
L'Amour de I'art - - I
Ce que parler veu dire - D -
Choses dites - - I
Les etudiants e l leurs etudes - - I
Esquisse d'une theorie de la pratique - - I
Le deraunement - - I
La dishnction - - I
Les heritiers - - I
Homo academicus - - I
Lecon 6ur la lecon/Lewn inaugurale - - I
Le metier de sociologue A - -
La noblesse d'erat - - I
COntologie politique de M. Heidegger - D -
Queslions de sociologie - - I
La reproduction - D -
Rapport psdagogiqueet communication - - I
Sociologie de I'Argelie - D -
Le sens pratique - - I
Two Bourdieu texts - - I
A economia das vocas simbolicas - - I

-
A= Adequate
D Defident
I -Inadequate

tronization of the LCSHs following the jargon used in each scientif-

ic field should be recommendable.
One might assume that catalogers have the responsibility for the
insufficiency of correct subject headings in Bourdieu's books, but it
is not the case. The problem seems to be in the authoritative subject
list used. Some samples of these divergences should give one a
clearer understanding of the problem. For example, most academics
are in agreement that in the book Esquisse d'une theorie de la
pratique Bourdieu drafts his Theory of Practice. Schatzki14 says
that in "Outline of a theory of practice (English translation of
 R u b h Urbizag6stegui Alvarado 99

Esquisse d'une theorie de la pratique) Pierre Bourdieu presents a

theory of the production of practice and its dependence on social
structures. His ideas constitute one of the most important theories
about social action to be developed during the last twenty years. He
is the first major social theorist to analyze action as governed by
practical intelligibility, and he offers an exciting perspective on how
the structures of social phenomena determine and are themselves
perpetuated by action." His Theory of practice is built up both in
opposition to phenomenological and ethnomethodological sociolo-
gies and anthropologies through an extensive discussion of his con-
cept of habitus, doxa, and symbolic capital. According to ice'^ the
book is a "reflection on scientific practice which will disconcert
both those who reflect on the social sciences without practicing
them and those who practice them without reflecting on them."
Four records were found for this book, and the subject headings
assigned to them were:
KABYLES
ETHNOLOGY
ETHNOLOGY-METHODOLOGY
SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY-THEORIES
But, none of them reflect the spirit of the book, and the most
essential element the "Theory of practice" was not taken into con-
sideration. The theory of practice, a term currently used in Sociolo-
gy and Anthropology, is not being used by LCSH.
The theory of practice, that Bourdieu presented in Esquisse d'une
theorie de la pratique, was continued in another book called Le sens
practique (translated into English as The Logic of practice). Bour-
dieu16 himself in a note says that this book is the continuation or
definitive version of Esquisse to which he has made many additions
and has reworked much of the material and the manuscript presented
in Esquisse. The result is a comprehensive and fundamental trans-
formation of the work which gives a better presentation of his
Theory of Practice. However, Le Sens practique was labeled as
ETHNOPHILOSOPHY for a subject heading in opposition to KA-
BYLES and ETHNOLOGY given to Esquisse d'une theorie de la
pratique. Again, the concept of "Theory of practice," essential to
this book, was missing. Instead, it was labeled incorrectly as "PHI-
100 CATALOGING & CLASSIFICATION QUARTERLY

LOSOPHY, PRIMITIVE." Furthermore, for different versions of

this same book, diverse libraries supplied different subject headings
such as:

ETHNOPHILOSOPHY
PRACTICE (PHILOSOPHY)
PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
KINSHIP
PHILOSOPHY, PRIMITIVE

Two pamphlets were also located with different titles: Two Bour-
dieu texts and Translations of Pierre Bourdieu on the culture field
and the economicfield. However, both of them are the same text
and refer to the translations of Symbolic power and Qualifcations
and jobs. Symbolic power summarizes some of Bourdieu's "debts
to various strands in the social science traditions, and, through these
placing and critiques, sketches the foundations of [his] own sociolo-
g y . . . [and that] somewhat scholastic diagram is designed to give a
synoptic view of the sum of the achievements of social science
which have to be integrated and (superseded) in order to produce an
adequate theory of symbolic power."17 Symbolic systems as struc-
turing structures, as structured structures, and as instruments of
domination are reviewed to produce what Bourdieu calls symbolic
power. The second text, "Qualifcations and jobs" written in col-
laboration with Luc Boltanski, presents the orientation of research
in progress at the Centre Europeenne des sociologie. "It offers for
discussion, in a rapid, provisional form, the hypotheses underpin-
ning a number of research projects now in progress. Hence its
sometimes somewhat elliptical formulation^."^^ This text presents
a sketch of concepts such as habitus, cultural capital and the relative
autonomy of the field of specialized production. Two records were
found for these identical texts, yet there were no coincidences in the
subject headings assigned to them. Furthermore, they did not reflect
the subject of the booklets. Symbolic power, habitus, cultural capi-
tal, and field, common conceptual terms in sociology, are not valid
LCSHs. The subject headings found were:
 Rubbl Urbizagdstegui Alvarado

SOCIOLINGUISTICS
SEMIOTICS
SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY-PHILOSOPHY
LABOR MARKET
Similarly, two identical booklets published with different titles
were found: L e ~ o nsur la L e ~ o nand L e ~ o ninaugurale. Originally
both of them were an inaugural lecture given by Bourdieu as an
introduction to the course of Sociology on April 23, 1982 at the
College de France. That same year they were published as Lecon
inaugurale and as Lefon sur la lefon. The text is an account of the
"inaugural class" as an institution; hence, its title. Bourdieu states
that as a rite of admission the inaugural class realizes, in a symbolic
way, an act of delegation at the end of which the new master is
authorized to speak with authority, and thus an act that institutes his
word as a legitimate discourse, pronounced by whomever has the
right to do it. The magic efficacy of the rite rests in the silent and
invisible exchange between the newcomers and the scientists there
reunited. The text is an effort to demystify this institution, and
Bourdieu takes the opportunity to ironize it by affirming that all the
prepositions that are enunciated by the science should be applied to
the subject who makes the science, Using as an excuse the inaugural
class, he speaks on the sociology of sociology, cultural capital,
scientific revolution, racism in science, habitus, field, etc.-i.e., so-
ciology of science. No book reviews have been produced for this
book, and only two records were found in OCLC, neither of them
with coincidences in subject headings. SOCIOLOGY and SO-
CIOLOGY-PHILOSOPHY were used as subject headings respec-
tively.

DISCUSSION
Several points are crucial to this research. One of them deals with
the question of Educational sociology vs. Socioiogy of education.
Five of Bourdieu's books are specifically dedicated to Sociology of
education, but LCSH cross references them with Educational so-
ciology. However, these are two different concepts. Educational
102 CATALOGING & CLASSIFICATION QUARTERLY

sociology is concerned with educational theory, practice and pro-

cess, the psychological and sociological characteristics of members
as they affect the system, and the impact of individual and group
characteristics brought to the educational system, equality of educa-
tional opportunity, school desegregation, curriculum content, inter-
groupal relation in schools, and teaching as a career, therefore, it
sees the educational institution from "within." Sociology of educa-
tion is primarily concerned with the analysis of social structures and
systems such as roles, status, authority, etc., found in the education-
al system as compared to similar structures from other institutions.
In other words, it sees the educational institution from the "out-
side." This differentiation in concepts goes back to the late nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries, when sociologists and educa-
tors were caught up in the optimistic current of the so called
Progressive Era. This Progressive Era stated that intellect and intel-
lectuals could conduct social progress toward the perfection of
society and humanity. Educational sociology officially was buried
in 1963 when the Journal of Educational Sociology, published by
the American Sociological Association, became the Journal of So-
ciology of Education. Three decades have passed since these events
occurred, but LC still continues to bury Sociology of education
within the heading for Educational sociology, in spite of the many
books and articles published about this matter.
Another critical-point of concern is the concept of "Theory of
Practice." This concept was born with Marx in 1848, developed by
Durkheim and Weber in the 20s, amplified by Gramsci in the 30s,
and largely discussed in social science since the 60s by Kopnin,
Althusser, Poulantzas, Giddens, etc. To construct the theory of prac-
tice, Bourdieu recalls the old scholastic idea of habitus which em-
phasizes a dimension of the past learned action. Therefore, the
practice is the product of a dialectical relation between a given
situation and habitus. Even though the concepts of Habitus and
Theory of practice have been around since 1868, when M m wrote
Das capital, LCSH has not incorporated this notion as a subject
heading, making it almost impossible to give a concise subject
analysis to Boudieu's books. LSCH uses PRACTICE (PHILOSO-
PHY) with the broader term PHILOSOPHY, but not THEORY OF
PRACTICE or PRACTICE, THEORY OF. In addition, LCSH does
 Ruben Vrbizag6stegui Alvarado 103

not use these terms as a cross reference for PRACTICE (PHILOSO-

PHY). They are simply ignored.
Another question arises with the problem of Culture vs. Sociolo-
gy of Culture. When trying to use Sociology of Culture, LCSH
cross references it to Culture. However, they are also different
concepts. Sociologists and anthropologists use "culture" as a col-
lective noun for the symbolic and learned aspect of societies. It
includes customs, language, religion, politics, law, ideology, myths,
education, art, etc., i.e., all elements present in the superstructural
sphere of any society.
Sociology of culture has as an object of study the relations estab-
lished between the cultural reproduction and the social reproduc-
tion, i.e., the contributions made by the cultural system to facilitate
the reproduction of the relation of force established between social
structure and the symbolic relation between classes, i.e., the con-
tributions made by the' symbolic power to the gnoseological order
and the division of labor domination.
In the last 50 years, this study of "culture" and "ideology" has
passed to constitute a central focus in social sciences. A good indi-
cator is the numerous theoretical currents which have emerged in
Europe and the United States such as: ethnoscience, ethnome-
thodology, symbolic interactionism to the rereading of Gramsci, the
Althusserian current, the semiotic, and the sociology of the symbol-
ic system. ~ o u r d i e u identifies
l~ two positions among the different
currents leading to "culture" and sociology of culture: the Kantian
tradition with its inheritors Cassirer and Sapir (including into this
current Durkheim and Levi-Strauss) which considers culture (art,
myth, language, etc.) as an instrument of communication and
knowledge, responsible for the consensus, i.e., agreement regarding
the meaning of symbols and the world; and the Marxist tradition-
with Max Weber 's contribution-which considers culture and sym-
bolic systems as an instrument of power to the legitimation of the
social order.

CONCLUSION
The subject cataloging process of Pierre Bourdieu's books was
found to be inadequate. This inadequateness was expressed as a
104 CATALOGING & CLASSIFICATION QUARTERLY

lack of coincidence between the subject headings selected for the

books analyzed and the actual subject content of those books (there-
fore to the theories of the author). This lack of correspondence re-
veals that LCSH does not provide actual terminology which is ade-
quate for subject headings in the social sciences. Perhaps this occurs
as a consequence of the diverse paradigms existent in this area with
each one having developed its own discourse, internal sbructut%,and
jargon; and at times, these are conflicting with each other.
There is also a presence of ideological biases in LCSHs. Most of
social science terminology springs only from the functionalist para-
digm, thus tending to ignore other paradigms within the social
sciences. This explains why most of the subject headings assigned to
Bourdieu's books are related to the functionalist paradigm predomi-
nant in the American academe. When these categories come from
other schools of thought (such as that of Bourdieu, who is linked to
the dialectical tradition), LCSH is unable to adequately fit them in. In
taking the cross-referenced headings, the cataloguer is induced and
forced to incorrectly describe the content of the book. When librari-
ans are not provided with adequate categories or choose categories
which do not fit with a given sociological school of thought, it can be
frustrating and discouraging because this misleads patrons.
Finally, it is also fair to recognize that catalogen are always being
coerced to put out books for library patrons, and so they cannot afford
the luxury of reading an entire text or consulting the literatwe for
reviews in order to adequately fit subject heading~aluxury that I
afforded in this analysis. However, it is necessary to keep in mind
that-as ~arte9Oillustrates very well-"The LCSH is a general system
developed by an American library responsible to the Congress of the
United States and that therefore there is nothing wrong in using a
viewpoint, along with its associated terminology, that is common in
American libraries and to American users, academic or otherwise."

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