Pierre Bourdieu, Organization, and Management

Pierre Bourdieu, the French sociologist, philosopher, and anthropologist, has been widely studied and analyzed in academic circles, particularly in sociology, where his ideas about power relations in social life helped to define the contemporary field. While many other sociological theories and figures have been extensively discussed and analyzed within the contexts of organization studies and management, Bourdieu’s ideas have, until recently, been largely ignored. Offering an authoritative evaluation of Bourdieu’s work, this book provides readers with conceptual frameworks, empirical examples, and methodological considerations for advancing theory and research in management and organization studies.

This book presents an in-depth review of the relevance of Bourdieu’s social theory for organization and management studies, outlining the key aspects of Bourdieu’s approach and situating his work in its historical and intellectual context of the time. An outline of the treatment of Bourdieuan theory by management and organization scholars and a critique of the selective reception of his work are offered. The first edited collection to explore the benefits of Bourdieuan sociology for a management audience, this book is relevant for theory, research, and practice, and will appeal to an international scholarly audience of academics and research students.

Ahu Tatli is Senior Lecturer in International Human Resource Management in the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. Her research interests are in the field of equality and diversity with a particular focus on disadvantage and privilege in organizational settings, and inequality and discrimination in employment. She has published a large number of papers in edited collections, practitioner and policy outlets and peer reviewed journals. She has co-authored (with M. Özbilgin) a research monograph, Global Diversity Management: An Evidence-based Approach.

Mustafa Özbilgin is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Brunel Business School, Brunel University, London, UK and the Co-Chair of Management et Diversité, Université Paris-Dauphine, France. His research focuses on equality, diversity and inclusion at work from comparative and relational perspectives. His most recent book, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, brings together papers from over 30 scholars in the field and his other text, Global Diversity Management (co-authored with Ahu Tatli) provides evidence from international field studies. He has authored and edited ten books and is widely published in journals.

Mine Karatas-Özkan is a Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Southampton, UK. Her research focuses on social and diversity dimensions of entrepreneurship. She serves on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Management, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, and International Journal of Business and Globalisation.