Social Movements and Symbolic Power: Radicalism, Reform and the Trial of Democracy in France

The important theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Alain Touraine, discussed in this book, seek to explain and resolve the 'crisis of democracy'. They start from a critique of structural inequality in political, economic and social fields - so much in contrast to democratic principles. But their theoretical perspectives and social conclusions diverge. Bourdieu insists on the radical overthrow of dominant institutions and their control of knowledge ('symbolic power'). Touraine advocates reformist...