Pierre Bourdieu and Contributions to Sociology of Sport

Abstract

This study aims to introduce Pierre Bourdieu's life, works, sociology, concepts he created and his contributions to the sociology of sports. The research was conducted with the literature search method. Bourdieu is one of the important sociologists of modern French sociology. His sociological point of view, qualified works and the theories/concepts he developed have carried him to the peak of intellectual life. In his academic life, subjects notably culture, education, art, politics, intellectuals, class, power, state, poverty, gender, economic-political, media and sociology of science, he has succeeded in enriching his sociology as a sociologist who has written many important works on many subjects and constantly creating new concepts and theories. The most striking feature of his sociology is to benefit from statistical methods and survey techniques. When Bourdieu's works are examined, it is seen that none of these new concepts created contradicts the ones he has produced before, there is no change in his basic point of view or acceptance and he carried his own sociology further. Another importance of Bourdieu's sociology is related to the in-depth analysis of the theories or concepts produced by empirical studies and demonstration of responses in practice. In addition, his sociology is a sociology that raises on the ideas of classical sociologists, avoids structure-individual dualism, combines theory and practice, and attempts to reveal the relationship between the social structure and the symbolic structure. The most important concepts of Bourdieu are habitus, field and capital. He tries to understand social hierarchy, domination relations and class differences through these concepts. It is seen that sports play an important role in the analysis of his theories or concepts. In general, it is important to monitor the fundamental dynamics of the field in the field of sport, to test the results of the habitus and capital differences directly in the sport, and also to show that the judgment or differences of taste appear as differences in sportive trends. Therefore, Bourdieu, both enabled the understanding of the social field and contributed to the development of sports sociology by making sociological analyzes on sports.