Doing politics with sociology

At the outset, these two men seemed completely at odds. Bourdieu, a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, qualified teacher of philosophy and Colonial State official, was teaching at the University of Algiers. Sayad, a teacher involved in the struggle for the liberation of Algeria, came from a family despoiled by the local representatives of the colonial administration. Yet this meeting was a key moment in both their respective careers, which they would both henceforth view as activist activity. The issue was to grasp the key problems scientifically in order to build a politically useful socialism.