Jens Kastner: Klassifikation und Kampf

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) is one of the most cited social and cultural scientists of the 20th century. His theoretical concepts and empirical studies have significantly influenced the cultural and social sciences in recent decades.

This book brings together articles and essays in which Jens Kastner discusses various aspects of Bourdieu's cultural theory using key terms and concepts from Bourdieu's theory and the debates surrounding it. The focus is on analyses of the art field, the artistic habitus and cultural domination, as well as questions about the role of the state in the reproduction of the social and the significance of the "colonial experience" for the genesis of Bourdieu's cultural theory.

The limits and potentials of critique are explored and the similarities with and differences to the approaches of other theorists, in particular those of Antonio Gramsci, Néstor García Canclini and Jacques Rancìere, are worked out.

In the introductory essays, short reviews and detailed essays, fundamental positions of a critical sociology of culture come to light, for which Bourdieu's writings continue to prove instructive and topical.

Biographical notes:
Jens Kastner is a sociologist and art historian and teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Turia + Kant published studies on Pierre Bourdieu (Die ästhetische Disposition) and the relationship between Bourdieu and Rancière (Streit um den ästhetischen Blick) as well as the anthology Bourdieu und Rancière.