Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal,

South Africa
Berghahn Books

The Role of Intellectuals Today

Author(s): Pierre Bourdieu
Source: Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, No. 99, Intellectuals, Justice and
Democracy (June 2002), pp. 1-6
Published by: Berghahn Books in association with the Faculty of Humanities, Development
and Social Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41802186
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 The Role of Intellectuals Today1
Pierre Bourdieu

In my book, The Rules of Art,1 I demonstrated that the intellectual

world is an autonomous world within the social world, a microcosm
which constituted itself progressively through a series of struggles. In
the history of the West, the first to acquire their autonomy with regard
to power were the jurists, who in twelfth century Bologna succeeded
in asserting their collective independence in relation to the Prince,
and, simultaneously, their rivalry amongst themselves. As soon as a
field is constituted and asserts its existence, it asserts itself into the
internal struggle. It is one of the properties of "fields" that the ques-
tion of belongingness to this universe is at stake in the very midst of
these universes. Suppose that, like a French historian by the name of
Viala, one makes a study of the French writers of the seventeenth
century: one uncovers lists of writers, one compiles these lists and one
undertakes to describe the social characteristics of the writers. In
terms of a good positivist method, it is beyond reproach; in fact, I
believe that it is a serious error. One must first question the very exis-
tence of these lists, the conditions of their establishment. There is a
dictionary of intellectuals which has just been published in France,
with much fuss. When one thinks in terms of the principles I am now
conveying, one suspects immediately that it is a matter of a coup de
force aimed at defining a population, at demarcating boundaries such
that here one is an intellectual and there one ceases to be an intellec-
tual, and to include people one would not expect to be included (such
as editors of influential newspapers), and to exclude seemingly indis-
pensable others. In other words, in any definition of intellectuals, any
socially authorized definition, there is a coup de force aiming at
imposing inclusions and exclusions. Historians who are working on
the seventeenth century are confronted with lists, which can only
function as instruments for scientific analysis provided they are
treated in advance as objects for analysis. One must ask where, in the
space they are in the process of describing, are those who make up
these lists, and at the same time what interest they have in demarcat-
ing this space in this or another fashion.
Thus the intellectual world presents itself as a microcosm which
has conquered its autonomy progressively. What do we understand by
Theoria, June 2002

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2 Pierre Bourdieu

autonomy? A unive
ple of its own law,
for itself. This law
is Art", or "Art tha
but Art". Such defi
when one follows t
one may observe ho
to assert their auto
experienced in orde
appropriate their o
of colours (contrary
having paid for im
imported blue to be
used, and used to h
The artists struggl
manifattura . All th
for independence. O
entists have led st
power, in relation t
academies, which -
and still are the Tr
The powers would
has been well const
ment can interfere
can happen, it has l
and a fortiori in rel
can say, generated
from that group o
universes which m
universes, in whic
autonomous they ar
pure poetry or pu
whose only clients
definition of auton
Sociologists remain
sign of lesser auton
The internal strugg
from the principle
not a geometer", is
should use weapons
score with a mathe

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The Role of Intellectuals Today 3

I come now to the intellectual. In order for th

there must exist an autonomous universe withi
a sociologist, or a philosopher, has accumulated
historian, the philosopher, etc., and that person
out of his universe, enter into the political
prophetic act aimed at imposing values which
his universe. Very plainly, the intellectual is a
entist, who, strengthened by the competen
acquired in his field, intervenes in the political
The intellectual is a bi-dimensional individu
co-ordinates, with one dimension listing deg
cration and the other dimension the degree of
(measured by the number of interventions wit
On the diagonal, you will find people whose deg
is equivalent to their degree of external involvem
the diagonal, you will have people like Sartre an
very high degree of internal fame, contribute t
In parentheses: intellectuals are an historical i
not have existed. For them to exist, several con
filled. I think that it is an historical model t
served, because it is perhaps one of the mean
universality, some transcendence, into the wor
that it is important that within a society there
idealism. Without doubt the existence of an
intellectual makes possible the benefits of stan
universal benefits. But it is perhaps through
History progresses. If there is a chance that the
of the universal, it is because there are profits
One of the difficulties in conveying that whic
that we all have in mind the opposition betwee
and the engaged intellectual. And this oppositio
understand the paradoxical reality that is the i
"autonomous" individual, a "purist" who commi
one keeps in mind this alternative, one cann
intellectual is, one cannot understand that for
even more efficiently, and even more seriously,
time, be even more autonomous and even more
Having said that there are two dimensions
should simply like to say that all the political r
could articulate for a politics of intellectuals, b
ment that the two dimensions must be reinforc

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4 Pierre Bourdieu

that is to say eleva

artistic, etc., unive
intellectual univer
lectuals, for examp
the social science
that which they
understandable rea
withdraw into the
their confrontation
general, and having
mortals of their k
One would have to
notably against th
the main danger fo
pendence which I
fields, be they sci
out doubt the first
media and the eff
The media are ab
autonomous fields
ues, and in particu
cess of the great
criterion of evalua
by competitions
media permits sh
intervene dangero
To reinforce auton
the Ivory Tower
think, that on the
defended autonom
their Tower with s
oretical sword in h
but to affirm thei
issues. For examp
racist, I think that
the means at their
values of univers
when nationalist m
erary, artistic or
the artists, and th
values of universal

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The Role of Intellectuals Today 5

that, one encounters again heteronomy. If

J'accuse , he would in all probability ha
published in Le Monde. Today we have to r
of the monopoly of the means of broadca
and I think that among the collective ac
take, there should be an effort to re-appro
of dissemination. I believe that the creatio
journals (and here I reveal a little of the
me to launch the rather odd venture which
lectuals of all countries can accumulate
information to make suggestions or expre
tant. I also believe, to give an idea of the
that we would have to take, that through
concentration in the publishing industry,
artists, and scientists is extremely threat
well known writers are able to publish wi
writers are subjected to tremendous censo
At the end of this analysis, there is a
mentioned several times, the utopia of
opposed to the total intellectual personified
idea of some kind of international inter
artists, writers and scientists who would
their authority. The virtue of the existenc
be not only to concentrate symbolic capit
interlinked controls between the specific
If one had an Arabic scholar next to a spe
could take clear stands, instead of protest
time one receives a press dispatch referrin
imprisoned. This is fine but it could lead
The last characteristic of this collective
least the disappearance of the profits of v
our "intellectuals" of parody. The intellect
is to say critical of himself and, in part
determined by the search for the profits o
If I am enthusiastic today in defendin
defence of the universal, it is primarily b
versal is seriously threatened and that t
fields is really at the mercy of economic
by the media. And it is also because I thin
tological illusions, if it has a lot to its c
many people, young people, men and wom

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 6 Pierre Bourdieu

better to propose,
leaving everyone i

NOTES

1. This text resumes the main lines of a lecture given at the French Institute in
Athens in 1996.
2. P. Bourdieu Les règles de l'art. Genese et structure du champs littéraire , Pans,
Ed. de Seuil, 1992. (English translation, The Rules of Art, Cambridge: Polity
Press, 1996.)
3 . The international review of books Liber (created in 1 989 as a supplement to five
large European journals: Le Monde , la FAZ , El Pais , le TLS and Vindice ) was
published until 1998 as supplement to Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales
and in cultural magazines in several European countries. Through a selection of
books published on matters of art, literature, philosophy and social science, Liber
has endeavoured to promote and recognize authors who deserve to be recognized
(and who are not necessarily the most well-known), through their publication in
their original language.

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