Authors: Antonello Petrillo
Abstract
Academic criticism has often focused on the progressive “politicization” of Bourdieu’s work, especially in the final phase of his life. In particular, The Weight of the World has been criticized for sacrificing the scientific rigor of the method to political urgencies. However, the book’s success among non-academic readers ‒ unprecedented in social sciences ‒ should lead us to consider whether it is precisely the opportunity provided by the scientific method for a political understanding of one’s existence that these readers have seized upon Bourdieu’s hēxis tõn aletheúein, the triple operation of unveiling (the social conditions of possibility for scientific knowledge, the act of speaking out, and its transmission), seems here capable of fostering a transitive reflexivity that finds its synthesis in the construction of a shared theory that can be transferred to other subjects.
Keywords: Socioanalysis, Reflexivity, Public engagement
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ANTONELLO PETRILLO insegna Sociologia generale, Topografie dello spazio sociale e Sociologia del mondo islamico presso l’Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa di Napoli.
E-mail: antonello.petrillo@unisob.na.it