The shadow cast by Pierre Bourdieu’s theory is large and well documented, but his early ethnographic work in Algeria is less well known and often overlooked. This volume, the first critical examination of Bourdieu’s early fieldwork and its impact on his larger body of social theory, represents an original and much-needed contribution to the field. Its six essays reappraise Bourdieu’s original research in light of contemporary processes and make substantial contributions to the ethnography of North Africa. The contributors are scholars of North Africa and France, and each is actively engaged with Bourdieu’s work. Bourdieu in Algeria offers a unique focus on Kabylia, Algeria; theory; history; and anthropology.

Jane E. Goodman is an associate professor in the Communication and Culture Department at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is the author of Berber Culture on the World Stage: From Village to Video. Paul A. Silverstein is an associate professor of anthropology at Reed College. He is the author of Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation and the coeditor of Memory and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa.

 

Contributors: Fanny Colonna, Dale Eickelman, Jane E. Goodman, Abdellah Hammoudi, Deborah Reed-Danahay, and Paul A. Silverstein