In this volume, exceptional original texts by Pierre Bourdieu on language and the relationships between language, power, and politics are collected. Traditional approaches to language, including the linguistic theories of Saussure and Chomsky, as well as the theory of speech acts developed by Austin and others, are critically examined by Bourdieu. Language, as a means of communication, should also be examined as a means of symbolic power - where "symbolic power" is understood by Bourdieu not so much as a specific type of power, but as an expression of various forms of power as they unfold in social life.
According to Pierre Bourdieu, the notion of "ownership of language" is anything but an innocent illusion. Linguistic productions, products of the relationship between a linguistic market and a linguistic habitus, are adapted by speakers to the demands of the respective field. Thus, every linguistic interaction, no matter how personal and insignificant it may be, bears the traces of the social structure it expresses and contributes to its reproduction.
Bourdieu's perspective sheds new light on the ways in which linguistic use varies according to factors such as class and gender. It also offers a new approach to the ways in which language is used in politics - the domain par excellence where words are actions and where the symbolic nature of power is at stake.
This volume, written by one of the leading social thinkers of our time, represents a major contribution to the study of language and power.