French sociologist and anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu's relevance for studies of spatiality and mobility has received less attention than other aspects of his work. Here, Deborah Reed-Danahay argues that the concept of social space, central to Bourdieu's ideas, addresses the structured inequalities that prevail in spatial choices and practices. She provides an ethnographically informed interpretation of social space that demonstrates its potential for new directions in studies of mobility, immobility, and emplacement. This book traces the links between habitus and social space across the span of Bourdieu's writings, and places his work in dialogue with historical and contemporary approaches to mobility.
Deborah Reed-Danahay is Professor of Anthropology at The State University of New York at Buffalo. Her previous 5 books include Locating Bourdieu and Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social. She has been named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, and is a former President of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe.