Are social classes still relevant to analyse sports groupings in “postmodern” society? An analysis referring to P. Bourdieu’s theory

P. Bourdieu's theory will be used to analyse changes in sport sociology. A significant part of the transformation of sociological research depends on the analysis of social categories and particularly of social classes. The theory of P. Bourdieu grants social positions and conditions an important role in the explanation of an agent's behaviour. The question is to know whether sports groupings, in the so-called "postmodern" society, can still be analysed with Bourdieu's sociological frame of analysis. The observation of new forms of sports grouping is used, by some French sociologists, to criticise Bourdieu's axiomatic. It is argued here that it is more often a misunderstanding or a mechanical use of Bourdieu's theory which needs to be criticised.