Denaturing institutions. The contribution of Pierre Bourdieu's historical sociology to a critique of work

The text explores the critical dimensions of Pierre Bourdieu's historical sociology, as well as the way in which this approach feeds into a critical sociology of work Based on analysis of the sociogenesis of a consultants group during the 19th and 20th centuries, the article starts by scrutinising the structural traits of the professional group that emerged in this situation, as well as the knowledge derived there from (especially involving specialist managerial knowledge). It then shines a light on the many different foundations underpinning belief in the marketplace, or to be more precise, belief in the market as the ultimate principle regulating a group and social order - not to mention belief in a kind of production in which different generations of consultants each play an active part. By creating an opposition between the kind of institutional history that is produced by actors and a more structural kind of history, historical sociology helps to denature institutions. Specifying the theoretical and methodological orientations that the approach conveys, the article's second section discusses conditions of sociological engagement and defends the autonomy of this discipline with a view towards restraining the scope of managerial doxa.