Overview

This volume seeks to make the case for Pierre Bourdieu’s relational sociology as a powerful, comprehensive and integrated paradigm for studying everything political. Bringing together a collection of experts writing on a wide range of topics organised into thematic sections, it not only shows that the applicability of Bourdieu’s concepts is broader and more productive than previously thought, but it also demonstrates how Bourdieu’s relational sociology advances on other perspectives and offers a ‘joined-up’ approach to the political, seamlessly capable of illuminating subjects as diverse as Brexit, voter choice, post-socialist transition, civil war, revolution, international relations and the structure of political science discourse itself. This collection will be essential reading for students and scholars of politics, whether they are sociologists, political scientists or international relations specialists.

Full Product Details

Author:   Will Atkinson (University of Bristol, UK)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.630kg
ISBN:  

9781032813332

ISBN 10:   1032813334
Pages:   236
Publication Date:   24 November 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction: For a relational political sociology; Part I. Class and Political Position-taking; 2. Class ethos and political parties in ante-Brexit Britain: A shifting correspondence; 3. Classed voting and the gender gap: A social space approach to an intersectional analysis; 4. Class and politics in post-socialist Poland; Part II. Politics and States in Times of Crisis; 5. Civil wars as situations of radical social change: Thinking ruptures, with and beyond Bourdieu; 6. National political fields and international politics: A Bourdieusian analysis of Middle East regional politics during the Arab Spring; Part III. Rethinking International Relations; 7. The field of nation states and the genesis of national strategies; 8. The limits of the state: Multiple interests and weakened circuits in delivering China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’; Part IV. A Reflexive Political Sociology; 9. A reflexive sociology of political science: Global and national discursive spaces; 10. Bourdieu’s political sociology: From imperialism to the state and back again

Reviews

""This is a timely and highly original collection of papers that brings Bourdieu's relational sociology to the political. An important contribution."" David L. Swartz, Boston University, USA

Author Information

Will Atkinson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol, UK. He is the author/editor of ten books on social class and Bourdieu’s social theory, including Class in the New Millennium (2017), Bourdieu and After (2020) and a four-volume series on The Class Structure of Capitalist Societies (2020-25).

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