Field Theory Beyond the Nation State

Abstract

At first glance, Bourdieu’s field theory might be considered an unlikely case for research on transnational and global phenomena. However, scholarship in the last two decades shows that field analysis can indeed be useful to study cases beyond the national realm. Reviewing this research, this chapter is organized in three sections: It starts with a discussion of the (post-)national orientation of the field-theoretical research program and outlines the ontology of transnational and global processes according to this program. Second, it reviews the main strands of postnational field analysis and distills from this literature the empirical foci and analytical priorities. The third section takes stock of the theoretical efforts that have recently been made to denationalize the field-theoretical research program and identifies the theoretical and conceptual contributions made in the process. The chapter concludes with an empirical, a methodological, and a theoretical question that should be addressed by future research.