Giuseppe Toscano

G. Toscano, Field and Social World. Definitions and applications in comparison The aim of this paper is to compare the notion of «field» by Pierre Bourdieu e the sensitizing concept of «social world» by Anselm Strauss. Bourdieu and Strauss start from different theoretical assumptions: the former from a conflictual conception of society, the latter from a Symbolic Interactionist perspective. Nevertheless, both their concepts share the same stance, as they avoid a knowledge of social phenomena seen as «things in themselves» and they both reject an image of society fractured into units lacking mutual relations. Furthermore, both concepts emphasize a constant feedback between structure and action and assume the point of view of social aggregates. The issue has been analyzed considering problems of field and world visibility and the definition of their boundaries. Key words: field, social world, symbolic interaction, visibility, boundaries.