Boltanski’s “Pragmatic Sociology”: Critique and Theory of Action

The new approach that has been termed “pragmatic sociology” was established by Luc Boltanski—who gradually distanced himself from Bourdieu’s sociology during the eighties— together with Laurent Thévenot. The approach that involves a new theory of action as its crucial element and that set out to achieve a paradigm change in social theory has developed into an entire school of thought by now. In this paper, by drawing comparisons with Bourdieu’s approach, Balázs Berkovits looks at the anthropological concept and the implicit notion of culture that forms the basis of the theory of action of “pragmatic sociology”, its views on the relationship between the sociologist and the agents analysed by him or her and on the critical competences of agents. Furthermore, Berkovits analyses the characteristics of the theory of legitimacy that is implied by the assertion of critical faculty and which presumably constitutes the major result of “pragmatic sociology”.