The work of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has emerged as one of the most substantial and innovative bodies of theory and research in contemporary social science.Le métier de sociologue, both a textbook and an original contribution to epistemology in social science, focuses on a basic problem of sociological research: the necessity of an epistemological break with the preconstructed objects social practice offers to the researcher. Pierre Bourdieu and his co-authors argue in the epistemological tradition of scholars like Bachelard, Canguilhem, Koyré, a tradition that identifies the construction of the object as being the fundamental scientific act. Their way of discussing the issue makes it accessible not only to academics and experts of epistemology, but also to advanced students of social science, using for illustration a wide range of texts from the various social sciences as well as from philosophy of science.

The fifth edition ofLe métier de sociologuecontains an interview with Pierre Bourdieu conducted by Beate Krais in 1988.

Pierre Bourdieuwas Professor of Sociology at the College de France and one of France's leading intellectuals. He died on January 24, 2002.

Jean-Claude ChamboredonandJean-Claude Passeronare Professors at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Marseille, France.