The Bachelors' Ball

This book gives the reader sociological and anthropological insight into the interaction of occupation, social class and marriage and how these factors effect and affect smaller communities and provides a customarily deft analysis of the disintegration of rural communities and the nature of social change. Continuing the theme of self-reflection, Bourdieu's final book, The Bachelors' Ball, sees him return to Béarn, the region in which he grew up, to examine the gender dynamics of rural France. This personal connection adds poignancy to Bourdieu's ethnographic account of the way the influence of urban values has precipitated a crisis for male peasants. Tied to the land through inheritance, these bachelors find themselves with little to offer the women of Bearn who, like the young Bourdieu himself, abandon the country for the city in droves. Continuing the theme of self-reflection, Bourdieu's final book, The Bachelors' Ball, sees him return to Béarn, the region in which he grew up, to examine the gender dynamics of rural France. This personal connection adds poignancy to Bourdieu's ethnographic account of the way the influence of urban values has precipitated a crisis for male peasants. Tied to the land through inheritance, these bachelors find themselves with little to offer the women of Bearn who, like the young Bourdieu himself, abandon the country for the city in droves.