The Bachelors' Ball

The Crisis of Peasant Society in Bearn
Author(s): Pierre Bourdieu, Richard Nice
Format: Paperback
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd, United Kingdom
Imprint: Polity Press
ISBN-13: 9780745630953, 978-0745630953

Synopsis

Continuing the theme of self-reflection, Bourdieu's final book, The Bachelors' Ball, sees him return to B?arn, the region in which he grew up, to examine the gender dynamics of rural France. This personal connection adds poignancy to Bourdieu's ethnographic account of the way the influence of urban values has precipitated a crisis for male peasants. Tied to the land through inheritance, these bachelors find themselves with little to offer the women of Bearn who, like the young Bourdieu himself, abandon the country for the city in droves.