PROWINCJONALIZUJĄC BOURDIEU: O ŹRÓDŁACH I BADANIACH GUSTU LUDOWEGO
PROVINCIALIZING BOURDIEU: ON THE ORIGINS AND RESEARCH OF POPULAR TASTES

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses two works devoted to the category of popular taste. Mirosław Pęczak has been focusing on music in Poland since 1956, relying on interviews, a query of sources and many years of experience of a fan and a critic. Oto Polouček explores the provincial culture of South Moravia in 1969–1989, recognizing the locally organized dance parties as their most symbolic manifestation. Despite different research methods and the range of analyzes, both authors come to very similar conclusions. They constitute a polemic with the petrified concept of Pierre Bourdieu. The category of popular taste turns out to be much more heterogeneous and open than the logic of the habitus suggests. Popular taste was shaped by official cultural policy, but also by forms of resistance to it, big festivals and folk weddings, tradition and television, as well as non-professional music and Western rock hits. As a result, Bourdieu’s theory shows its serious limitations. The category of the people (lud) also requires rethinking.

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