School Choice Research and Politics with Pierre Bourdieu: New Possibilities

Various sociological perspectives have been applied to facilitate school choice research over the past two decades, as showcased in this 2020 Yearbook of Politics of Education Association. Among them, Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts and theories stand out as a catalyst for the field’s sociological development. My first objective in this article is, thus, to assess the contributions of Bourdieu’s sociological theory to school choice scholarship to date. I review the established and emerging research studies to highlight the significance of Bourdieu’s conceptual system in illuminating the social dynamics of school choice. My second objective in this article is to discuss how Bourdieu’s geographical concerns and concepts have been underutilized in the field. Ultimately, I argue that Bourdieu’s sociospatial concepts can unlock new areas of research and politics by elucidating why and how school choice functions as a mechanism that accentuates social inequality, which is reproduced geographically.