Conclusions and perspectives

Abstract

In the present book, we have outlined epistemological conditions, empirical procedures, and hints to the theoretical framework of Bourdieu’s approach to meaning. In spite of the opinion of some of his readers, we have seen that Bourdieu indeed studies semantic and semiotic contents and that he develops a praxeological way to do so. This approach is visible mainly in his empirical works. In theoretical terms, Bourdieu’s sociological transformation of the relationist (respectively structuralist) tradition introduced elements from the Humboldtian school, from ordinary language philosophy, and (with the notion of “labor of language”) even some traits of a genetic hermeneutics. On the other hand, his polemical focus on his structuralist antecedents forestalls the proactive development of a praxeological theory of meaning.