Loïc Wacquant

Bio: Loïc Wacquant is an academic researcher from University of California, Berkeley. The author has contributed to research in topics: Habitus & Symbolic power. The author has an hindex of 67, co-authored 259 publications receiving 39028 citations. Previous affiliations of Loïc Wacquant include University of California & University of Chicago.

An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology

Abstract: Over the last three decades, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has produced one of the most imaginative and subtle bodies of social theory and research of the post war era. Yet, despite the influence of his work, no single introduction to his wide-ranging "oeuvre" is available. This book, intended for an English-speaking audience, offers a systematic and accessible overview, providing interpretive keys to the internal logic of Bourdieu's work by explicating thematic and methodological principles underlying his work. The structure of Bourdieu's theory of knowledge, practice, and society is first dissected by Loi c Wacquant; he then collaborates with Bourdieu in a dialogue in which they discuss central concepts of Bourdieu's work, confront the main objections and criticisms his work has met, and outline Bourdieu's views of the relation of sociology to philosophy, economics, history, and politics. The final section captures Bourdieu in action in the seminar room as he addresses the topic of how to practice the craft of reflexive sociology. Throughout, they stress Bourdieu's emphasis on reflexivity--his inclusion of a theory of intellectual practice as an integral component of a theory of society--and on method--particularly his manner of posing problems that permits a transfer of knowledge from one area of inquiry into another. Amplified by notes and an extensive bibliography, this synthetic view is essential reading for both students and advanced scholars. Pierre Bourdieu is Professor of Sociology at the Colle ge de France. Loi c J. D. Wacquant is a Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows, Harvard University.

Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity

Abstract: The punitive turn of penal policy in the United States after the acme of the Civil Rights movement responds not to rising criminal insecurity but to the social insecurity spawned by the fragmentation of wage labor and the shakeup of the ethnoracial hierarchy. It partakes of a broader reconstruction of the state wedding restrictive “workfare” and expansive “prisonfare” under a philosophy of moral behaviorism. This paternalist program of penalization of poverty aims to curb the urban disorders wrought by economic deregulation and to impose precarious employment on the postindustrial proletariat. It also erects a garish theater of civic morality on whose stage political elites can orchestrate the public vituperation of deviant figures—the teenage “welfare mother,” the ghetto “street thug,” and the roaming “sex predator”—and close the legitimacy deficit they suffer when they discard the established government mission of social and economic protection. By bringing developments in welfare and criminal justice into a single analytic framework attentive to both the instrumental and communicative moments of public policy, Punishing the Poor shows that the prison is not a mere technical implement for law enforcement but a core political institution. And it reveals that the capitalist revolution from above called neoliberalism entails not the advent of “small government” but the building of an overgrown and intrusive penal state deeply injurious to the ideals of democratic citizenship. Visit the author’s website.

Rethinking the state: Genesis and structure of the bureaucratic field

Abstract: Tenter de penser l'Etat, c'est courir le risque d'appliquer des categories de pensee produites par l'Etat lui-meme et de meconnaitre sa verite profonde. Pour etayer sa proposition, l'A. tente de montrer les limites de l'independance des sciences sociales vis-a-vis de l'Etat. Puis il decrit celui-ci comme lieu de concentration de quatre types de capital : pouvoir de coercition ; capital economique ; capital informationnel ; capital symbolique. Ce dernier point est developpe en retracant la genese de principes de categorisations du monde, donnes comme universels, mais relevant de la construction symbolique associee a la constitution de l'Etat. Cette etude de la position monopolisante de l'Etat se conclut sur une description du microcosme bureaucratique qu'est la « noblesse d'Etat »

Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality

Abstract: Ghetto, Banlieue, Favela et Caetera: Tools for Rethinking Urban Marginality. PROLOGUE: AN OLD PROBLEM IN A NEW WORLD?. 1. The Return of the Repressed: Riots, 'Race,' and Dualization in Three Advanced Societies. I. FROM COMMUNAL GHETTO TO HYPERGHETTO. 2. The State and Fate of the Dark Ghetto at Century's Close. 3. The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in 'Bronzeville'. 4. West Side Story: A High-Insecurity Ward in Chicago. II. BLACK BELT, RED BELT. 5. From Conflation to Comparison: How Banlieues and Ghetto Converge and Contrast. 6. Stigma and Division: From the Core of Chicago to the Margins of Paris. 7. Dangerous Places: Violence, Isolation, and the State. III.- LOOKING AHEAD: URBAN MARGINALITY IN THE 21st CENTURY. 8. The Rise of Advanced Marginality: Specifications and Implications. 9. Logics of Urban Polarization from Below. Postcript: Theory, History, and Politics in Urban Analysis

Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology

Abstract: This paper reviews the origins and definitions of social capital in the writings of Bourdieu, Loury, and Coleman, among other authors. It distinguishes four sources of social capital and examines their dynamics. Applications of the concept in the sociological literature emphasize its role in social control, in family support, and in benefits mediated by extrafamilial networks. I provide examples of each of these positive functions. Negative consequences of the same processes also deserve attention for a balanced picture of the forces at play. I review four such consequences and illustrate them with relevant examples. Recent writings on social capital have extended the concept from an individual asset to a feature of communities and even nations. The final sections describe this conceptual stretch and examine its limitations. I argue that, as shorthand for the positive consequences of sociability, social capital has a definite place in sociological theory. However, excessive extensions of the concept may j...

The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between use of Facebook, a popular online social network site, and the formation and maintenance of social capital. In addition to assessing bonding and bridging social capital, we explore a dimension of social capital that assesses one’s ability to stay connected with members of a previously inhabited community, which we call maintained social capital. Regression analyses conducted on results from a survey of undergraduate students (N = 286) suggest a strong association between use of Facebook and the three types of social capital, with the strongest relationship being to bridging social capital. In addition, Facebook usage was found to interact with measures of psychological well-being, suggesting that it might provide greater benefits for users experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.

We Have Never Been Modern

Abstract: What makes us modern? This is a classic question in philosophy as well as in political science. However it is often raised without including science and technology in its definition. The argument of this book is that we are modern as long as we split our political process in two - between politics proper, and science and technology. This division allows the formidable expansion of the Western empires. However it has become more and more difficult to maintain this distance between science and politics. Hence the postmodern predicament - the feeling that the modern stance is no longer acceptable but that there is no alternative. The solution, advances one of France's leading sociologists of science, is to realize that we have never been modern to begin with. The comparative anthropology this text provides reintroduces science to the fabric of daily life and aims to make us compatible both with our past and with other cultures wrongly called pre-modern.

Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept

Abstract: A growing number of sociologists, political scientists, economists, and organizational theorists have invoked the concept of social capital in the search for answers to a broadening range of questions being confronted in their own fields. Seeking to clarify the concept and help assess its utility for organizational theory, we synthesize the theoretical research undertaken in these various disciplines and develop a common conceptual framework that identifies the sources, benefits, risks, and contingencies of social capital.

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

Abstract: Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index