University Essay: Exploring Social Theories of Foucault and Bourdieu

This essay delves into the works and contributions of two prominent social theorists: Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu. It begins by examining Foucault's understanding of power, emphasizing his view that power is constructed within society through rules, knowledge, and individual understanding, rather than being wielded solely by individuals or groups. The essay highlights Foucault's influence in questioning social norms and his impact on fields like developmental thinking. The essay then turns to Pierre Bourdieu, focusing on his concept of social capital, which he defines as capital that individuals invest in the market. The essay contrasts Bourdieu's view of capital with other theories, emphasizing its social nature. The conclusion underscores the significance of both theorists' contributions to sociology, emphasizing the importance of their concepts in the field of social theory.

Running head: ESSAY ON SOCIAL THEORISTS
Essay on Social Theorists
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ESSAY ON SOCIAL THEORISTS
Social Theorists are the people who have dedicated themselves to defining various
social theories and the significance of such theories in the application of the human being’s
lives. Therefore, it is the job of the social theorists to try to analyse the various theories that
they come up with and try to analyse the various meanings of these social theories with and
find out how they are applied in the society itself and whether these social theories are helpful
to the people of the society or not.
The purpose of this essay is to describe the essay about the works and
contributions of Foucault and Bourdieu.
Michel Foucault was a well-known social theorist from France who was the son of a
prestigious surgeon in the country. He is known for his understanding of the shape of power
and how it is present everywhere in the world. He challenged the idea that the theme of the
power is wielded by the people or the groups. Instead, he says that the power is constructed in
the society through the established forms of rules, knowledge as well as understanding of the
individuals. His approach to the theory of the power crosses over the limitations of politics
and the concept of power is seen as a fundamental for the establishment of the society (Lin,
2015).
Foucault believed in the possibilities of the action as he himself was an active social
commentator whose ideas were more concerned with the power to question the recognized
the social norms of the society and how the social norms apply to the human lives. As stated
by Julien (2015), his approaches have been used by the critiques in questioning the paradigms
of the societies in the field of developmental thinking and to analyse how the theory of power
applies to the human society and the humans themselves. From all these discussions, it can be
stated that Michel Focault, was one of the most knowledgeable person who had an
understanding of the concept of power and how it was formed by the use of knowledge and

2ESSAY ON SOCIAL THEORISTS
discourse of the human beings themselves. Thus, Foucault is widely remembers as one of the
most influential social theorists of all time for his contribution to the social theory (Elden,
2016).
Pierre Bourdieu was a French social theorist whose work was mainly concerned with
the themes of social capital. He conceptualized social capital on the basis of the recognition
that the capital is based not only on the economies of nature, but also on the concept that the
social exchanges need to be on the social interest and they need to encompass the capital in
all their form as well as the profit that this capital provides the humans with. According to
Bourdieu, the capital is something that belongs to the individuals rather than it belonging to
the collective audience. He stated that the social capital is the result of the individuals who
invest in their capitals in the market itself. Therefore, it can be said that all these helps to
make Bourdieu’s theory distinct from all the other theories of the capital in the society itself
and its uses for the humans themselves (MacHoul, 2015). From these statements, it can be
concluded that Bourdieu was also one of the most influential social theorists with his theories
of the capital on the society.
From the above discussions, it can be concluded that Bourdieu as well as Foucault
were indeed two of the greatest social theorists who have contributed to the theories of the
sociology. Their contributions have helped the society to accept the strategies established by
these social theorists to apply these concepts in the field of social theories. Indeed, the social
theories are very important in the field of social theories that were presented in the world
today.

3ESSAY ON SOCIAL THEORISTS
Reference List
Elden, S. (2016). Space, knowledge and power: Foucault and geography. Routledge.
Julien, C. (2015). Bourdieu, social capital and online interaction. Sociology, 49(2), 356-373.
Lin, N. (2017). Building a network theory of social capital. In Social capital (pp. 3-28).
Routledge.
McHoul, A., McHoul, A., & Grace, W. (2015). A Foucault primer: Discourse, power and the
subject. Routledge.
McHoul, A., McHoul, A., & Grace, W. (2015). A Foucault primer: Discourse, power and the
subject. Routledge.