Books by Derek Robbins

The book has an introduction outlining the conceptual framework that gives meaning to the six collected texts that follow. This framework derives from the work of Pierre Bourdieu. He stated that ''everything is social, '' which means that all discourses have to be understood in their own terms (as ''structured structures'') and in relation to the social conditions in which they developed (''structuring structures''). As social individuals we are constrained by the structures defining our situation but we also have the capacity to alter those structures. With particular reference to the ''field'' of politics, the Introduction considers theoretically the nature of the ''presentation of self'' (Goffman) of citizens and the nature of parliamentary democracy as ''presentation'' or ''representation'' (as discussed in Habermas: The structural transformation of the public sphere). The six main chapters reproduce texts written or spoken about politics at intervals in the period from 1960 until 2020. Brief introductions to each chapter will contextualise these texts both in terms of their significance in my developing awareness of political discourse and also in terms of the historically changing nature of the field of politics itself in the United Kingdom. Having an a-political upbringing, the author suggests that he gradually acquired a political competence but, equally, developed the view that the domination of political discourse has become exclusive and that there is now a need to reassert social relations in society and to recognize the extent to which political activity sustains the social control of a privileged minority. The book has an Epilogue which considers some recent arguments about ''populism'' and also reflects on the extent to which the ''new normal'' heralded by some for a post-Covid future has the capacity to circumscribe the influence of politics. The author reflects on whether deployment of Bourdieu''s concept of ''symbolic violence'' - the process by which the attitudes of the few are imposed on the many - might lead to the possible resurgence of social movements which are sceptical about political power. The author suggests that there may be a need for a new ''quietism'' as advanced by Fénelon in the court of Louis XIV at the end of the 17th century and as considered by Richard Rorty in "Naturalism and quietism" in Philosophy as Cultural Politics, 2007.

This book seeks to offer a chronological account of the development of Pierre Bourdieu's thinking. It is intended to guide readers towards and through the original texts and attempts to represent the French meaning of Bourdieu, hence the concentration on the French chronology.

Analysing the work of Schutz, Gurwitsch, Merleau-Ponty and Bourdieu, this book considers the historical development of competing philosophies of social science. It examines the relations between phenomenology, Gestalt psychology and empirical social science in the first half of the twentieth century and then explores the way in which Bourdieu responded to this legacy by advocating a form of reflexive social-scientific investigation, which would remain faithful to primary experience without disowning accumulated intellectualism. The book asks whether the Bourdieu 'paradigm' retains value beyond the French conditions of its production. It offers an analysis of the development of Bourdieu's thought and practice which constitutes an invitation to readers generally to reassess the value of the western tradition of the social function of the detached intellectual for mass democratic societies.

Part of the SAGE Swifts series, this book examines the changing and competing conceptualizations of the political and the social in the Western European intellectual tradition, in particular, the way in which political thought and its consequences in action have become divorced from social and cultural experience.

A detailed, imaginative approach to five key social theorists who have helped to shape modern thought. Robbins is a world class expert and his book represents a significant development in the field of french social theory.