Reflexivity and common sense knowledge: the paradoxes of Bourdieu’s sociology of practice

In The Weight of the World (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002) Bourdieu propose a different methodology. While his works were essentially designed according to the most advanced quantitative methods, Bourdieu gives a central role to qualitative methodology in The Weight of the World. Additionally, he argues the importance of “induced and accompanied” interviews both for the informant and the interviewee. According to Hamel (In: Robbins D, ed. Pierre Bourdieu. London: Sage, p 142-159, 2000), Bourdieu’s arguments in The Weight of the World clearly mark ‘a real turning point for this author in relation to his former ideas on representativeness and objectivity, as well as on the status attributed to common sense in sociology.’ However, contrary to Hamel, this paper will be critical, but sympathetic to Bourdieu’s notion of reflexivity and common sense. While Bourdieu’s notion of reflexivity entails a process of self consciousness, he will be criticised for ignoring a more conscious aspect of subjectivity. Indeed, the article will discuss how Bourdieu’s key concept of reflexivity considers only social scientists’ knowledge as reflexive and lay people’s knowledge as nonreflexive. It does so with drawing on interviews in The Weight of the World.