Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus: A World-System Biography - Paperback

by Georgi M. Derluguian (Author)

Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus is a gripping account of the developmental dynamics involved in the collapse of Soviet socialism. Fusing a narrative of human agency to his critical discussion of structural forces, Georgi M. Derluguian reconstructs from firsthand accounts the life story of Musa Shanib--who from a small town in the Caucasus grew to be a prominent leader in the Chechen revolution. In his examination of Shanib and his keen interest in the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, Derluguian discerns how and why this dissident intellectual became a nationalist warlord.

Exploring globalization, democratization, ethnic identity, and international terrorism, Derluguian contextualizes Shanib's personal trajectory from de-Stalinization through the nationalist rebellions of the 1990s, to the recent rise in Islamic militancy. He masterfully reveals not only how external economic and political forces affect the former Soviet republics but how those forces are in turn shaped by the individuals, institutions, ethnicities, and social networks that make up those societies. Drawing on the work of Charles Tilly, Immanuel Wallerstein, and, of course, Bourdieu, Derluguian's explanation of the recent ethnic wars and terrorist acts in Russia succeeds in illuminating the role of human agency in shaping history.

Front Jacket

Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus is a gripping account of the developmental dynamics involved in the rise and collapse of Soviet socialism. Fusing a narrative of human agency to his critical discussion of structural forces, Georgi M. Derluguian reconstructs from firsthand accounts the life story of Musa Shanib-who from a small town in the Caucasus grew to be an intellectual reformer and, after 1989, a leader in several revolutions and wars, from Abkhazia to Chechnya. In his examination of the irony of Shanib's fascination with the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, Derluguian discerns the personal trajectory of this reformer from democratic dissident to nationalist warlord.

Shanib's story allows Derluguian to add human dimension to his analysis of abstract notions like globalization, the end of communism, democratization, politics of ethnic identity, and terrorism. Drawing simultaneously on the work of Charles Tilly, Immanuel Wallerstein, and, of course, Bourdieu, Derluguian presents a far-reaching explanation of ethnic wars in the wake of Soviet collapse. Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus illuminates the role of human agency in shaping world history as well as the current dilemmas posed by globalization and the war on terror.

Author Biography

Georgi M. Derluguian is associate professor in the Department of Sociology and the International Studies Program at Northwestern University. He is coeditor of Questioning Geopolitics.