Category: English Blog

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu approaches power within the context of a comprehensive ‘theory of society’ which – like that of Foucault – we can’t possibly do justice to here, or easily express in the form of applied methods (Navarro 2006). And although his subject was mainly Algerian and French society, we have found Bourdieu’s approach useful in analysing power in development and social change processes (see the articles by Navarro, Moncrieffe, Eyben and Taylor and Boser in Eyben, Harris et. al. 2006; Navarro offers a particularly solid introduction to Bourdieu’s method).

While Foucault sees power as ‘ubiquitous’ and beyond agency or structure, Bourdieu sees power as culturally and symbolically created, and constantly re-legitimised through an interplay of agency and structure. The main way this happens is through what he calls ‘habitus’ or socialised norms or tendencies that guide behaviour and thinking. Habitus is ‘the way society becomes deposited in persons in the form of lasting dispositions, or trained capacities and structured propensities to think, feel and act in determinant ways, which then guide them’ (Wacquant 2005: 316, cited in Navarro 2006: 16). (more…)

Hirst, John. The Shortest History of Europe. Black Inc., 2009.

John Hist is an Australian historian and intellectual, currently serving as an emeritus professor of history at La Trobe University, Melbourne. His book The Shortest History of Europe is a relatively concise yet an impressive book. In the print form, the book spans 160 pages however, I got the chance to read electronic copy which was well configured for my kindle device.

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Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922. Cambridge University Press, New York. 2005.

The Donald Quataert (late) was Middle East/ Ottoman historian and Distinguished Professor at Binghamton University with a particular interest in economic/labor and social history. The book under review provides a general overview of the Ottoman Empire. Around 200 pages in length, this book is one of the Cambridge’s New Approaches to European History series publications which tend to provide concise and authentic knowledge on diverse topics in post-renaissance history to an international audience – mainly high school and undergraduate level students as well as general readers. The author has also served as the chairman of Institute of Turkish Studies; a post that testifies for his scholarship and credibility.

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Friedrich Engels (1820 – 1895) was one of the contemporaries of Karl Marx. Both worked in close association and are considered to be the fathers of Marxist theory. Engels came from a well off Prussian family. His father owned textile mills. His family raised him as a Christian yet he developed atheist ideas. More to the disappointment of his family, he showed no interest in family business; instead he published anonymous articles in Rheinische Zeitung – a newspaper then edited by Marx. Liked Marx, he also acquainted himself with Hegel and developed ties with Young Hegelians. For a short time, he also served in Prussian Army. He never married being against the institution of marriage.

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Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is undoubtedly his most acclaimed work published in 1905. It was not translated into English until 1930. In this book, Weber tried to provide an alternative narrative of emergence of capitalism which was totally different from his predecessor, Karl Marx. While Marx saw religion as just a tool of bourgeoisie to maintain the status quo, Weber placed it at the core of capitalism.

In this book, Weber tried to find a plausible rationale for the spread of capitalism in Western societies and its inhibition in the East. After observing the underlying patterns in Europe, he concluded that Protestantism was that idiosyncrasy that made it possible for the capitalism to flourish there. In his subsequent articles about Eastern societies like China, Weber argued that though these communities contained the elements necessary for the growth of capitalism like proper state, bureaucracy, open markets, intense commerce and so on yet a peculiar mindset was missing. West was simply lucky in this regards!

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