Marché, rationalité et faits sociaux totaux : Pierre Bourdieu et l'économie

The article seeks to analyze the economic sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, which entails a critique of the neoclassic theory based upon empirical materials. In his studies on Algerian economy it is possible to observe the genesis of the concept of habitus as symbolic capital and to examine its applicability to capitalist economy. Both concepts underscore a relational mode of thinking and of conceptualizing field. Field articulates a socially construed space, in which agents, far from being interchangeable, confront each other using different resources and interacting for producing change, maintaining or transforming prevailing balance of power. Disputing a universal economic rationality ascribed to human nature, Bourdieu foregrounds the historicity of economy. Thus, history of the process of differentiation and autonomization includes the construction of a specific game, the economic field?s one, with its own rules. Far from confining itself to a marginal position, symbolism is at the heart of economics.