Bourdieu’s seminar on the “Sociologie des œuvres”. Conceptual development and internationalization of capital

In the 1970s, Pierre Bourdieu held a bimonthly seminar at the École normale supérieure, Rue d’Ulm. Although they were less celebrated than Louis Althusser and Jacques Lacan’s seminars, that took place a few years earlier in the same institution, those gatherings allow a better understanding of Bourdieu’s leadership in the decisive years of his career. The article aims to shed original light on the integrative functions of the seminar as well as on the construction of an international network through invitations. The research is grounded on a preliminary analysis of the French “seminar”, borrowed from German academia after the Franco-Prussian war. It shows the relative heterogeneity of Bourdieu’s group, mixing ambitious young Parisian scholars from elite schools and former primary school teachers with humble provincial background. Bourdieu’s charismatic style is analyzed as a necessary basis of group structuring and energizing.