The individual point of view: learning from Bourdieu’s 'The weight of the world'

This article explores what cultural studies can learn from the detailed consideration of the individual voice in Bourdieu’s (1999) The Weight of the World. This book addresses the criticism often made of Bourdieu’s earlier work—that it ignored individual agency in favor of structure—through a depiction of French society’s space of points of view. Based on in-depth interviews, it offers an intriguing methodology, although leaving unresolved methodological uncertainties and theoretical absences, including a neglect of the role of media and popular culture in everyday experience. To build on Bourdieu’s work, the conclusion suggests that we explore how a range of social categories derived from media and popular culture are employed in everyday action and thought.