Abstracts

Can people free themselves from their social determinants? For Pierre Bourdieu, only a deep socioanalysis of social conditioning can open the way to freedom. Clinical sociology, with reference to Vincent de Gaulejac, has criticized this approach for placing “combat” over “understanding” and thus blocking “reflexivity” and liberation. As this article points out, understanding plays a considerable but often overlooked role in Bourdieu’s work, along with combat. The conjunction of understanding and combat is present in every movement for social liberation, as shown herein on three different scales: symbolic violence between two subjects, macrosocial domination, and clan oppression in an occupational group.