The Scientific Field

The article entitled The Scientific Field appeared for the first time—thought under a different title—in 1975. In this volume we publish the writing that appeared one year later on the pages of the Actes de la recherche en sceinces sociales, where the key elements of the bourdieusian theory of science—which later undergo some more or less important modifications— already unfold. Bourdieu, by breaking with both the approaches of scholars analysing the scientific products in terms of solely external or internal explanations, intends to organically integrate the two within the very same conception. He affirms that all scientific activity within the scientific field must be inseparably considered as a political activity and analyses the social conditions of the production of an ahistoric scientific knowledge. In addition to this, he pays attention to those tendencies (erudite discourse and false science) hindering the proper functioning of the scientific field, and more precisely that of a so-called “scientific sociology” thinking in terms of relative positions within a given field.