This is an interdisciplinary work in its method and the range of its contributors and takes both an educational and a reflexive approach to the subject. Its 690 entries cover a multitude of subjects pertaining to Bourdieu and his oeuvre: concepts, methods and objects (art, literature, music, sport, education, language, power, social classes); disciplines (anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychology, sociology, political science); intellectual currents that Bourdieu debated (Marxism, structuralism); his preferred authors (Cassirer, Durkheim, Mauss, Weber); and his relationships with contemporaries (Derrida, Foucault, Lévi-Strauss).
The entries also detail his works; the institutions to which he was affiliated the laboratories where he collaborated, the reviews, collections, editions and associations, that he founded; major events (May 1968, the strike of 1995); and the countries that received and responded to his work (USA, Japan, Latin America, the Arab world, and of course those in Europe). The entries combine, on the one hand, a conceptual approach with a didactic aim, and on the other hand biographical elements, such as his passion for rugby or his childhood dream to be an orchestra conductor, his relationship with his professors (Aron, Canguilhem, Vuillemin) and his political engagement. The dictionary includes a complete bibliography of one of the most cited social science authors in the world.
