Visualization of sociological practice: Assembly techniques and text-image compositions in Pierre Bourdieu's research workshop

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Franz Schultheis
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory ; History of Science
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 551935971

After a phase of unmediated coexistence, text and image as genres of representation of society have hesitantly begun to enter into dialog with each other again under the credo of the "visual turn" in the social sciences. For some years now, attempts have been made from various sides and with different theoretical perspectives and research strategies to reconnect with the traditions of visual anthropology, ethnology and sociology. However, a suitable paradigmatic coordinate system that could lend these efforts a sufficient degree of coherence and cohesion to achieve a truly convincing and sustainable "conversion of the view of the social" is still lacking. Bourdieu's person and work offer us the potential to achieve such mediation. In 1975, Bourdieu founded the journal "Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales" (ARSS), which quickly established itself as a central institution in the field of French social sciences, albeit largely unnoticed outside of France. Its unique selling point lay in an unusual form of text-image dialog and collage technique, a systematic use of various types of visual elements in the communication of the paths of knowledge, empirical foundations and methodological approaches of the studies presented. The planned research is situated at the intersection of different epistemological interests and research questions with regard to the emergence and significance of this visual form of sociological narrative art, which is formative for Bourdieu's work and impact and is probably only known to German readers in the form of Bourdieu's "Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste". The aim is to fill this gap and uncover the originality, relevance and potential inherent in the "invention" of this form of dense representation of research. The project builds up on existing studies on Bourdieu's visual sociology using photographic field research, as well as a privileged access to the Bourdieu archive in Paris, where still largely untapped sources are available.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants