Bourdieu, l’arte dei fumetti e il mestiere del sociologo

Reflecting upon the use of comics in sociological teaching should depart from two considerations: the first one concerns the interdependence between teaching activities, research activities and further practices in which sociologists are professionally involved; the second one concerns the idea that making comics corresponds to build an autonomous ‘art world’ in which comics creators cultivate own gaze on social reality. The article is divided into three parts. The first one introduces Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology as a frame to analyze how comics produce and mediate sociological knowledge. The second part focuses on two graphic novels related to Bourdieu’s work La distinction (1979) and Sociologie en Algerie (1958). While presenting different narratives, the two graphic novels also share two common features: first, they put into question the neutrality of sociologist’s viewpoint; and second, they show how individuals may structure a ‘sociological habitus’ by questioning their worldviews within daily social situations. In the last section, attention is paid to how the languages of comics are used for sociological teaching. This entails considering sociological teaching via comics as consisting of a set of practices through which scholars may reflect upon their scientific standards, codes and cognitive dispositions and, consequentially, on their socialization into the discipline.