Letter: Bourdieu the brave 1

Before Pierre Bourdieu is safely interred in the sepulchre of academia ("France still feels the force of his habitus", THES , February 8), it is worth remembering his later active involvement in the struggles of the social and labour movements against neo-liberal globalisation. He exemplified in practice the advice he gave in one of his popular pamphlets in the Raisons d'Agir series, which he founded: "Researchers must transcend the sacred boundary between scholarship and commitment in order to leave the academic microcosm and enter into interaction with the outside world."

Richard Hatcher
Faculty of education
University of Central England