JOSÉ LUIS BELLÓN AGUILERA Bourdieu's Field and critical minefield of the 1898 Generation *In Buffery, Davis and Hooper, (eds.) (2007) Reading Iberia. Theory / History / Identity. Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 43-61. [Proofread version] Se penser soi même en revenant par l'analyse à la société proche de soi, et de son propre passé familial'. (Eribon, 'L'anti-hériter’, p.27). Bourdieu's notion of ‘field’ (‘champ’) is rapidly becoming a critical commonplace in the world of Hispanism, yet there is little accompanying reflection on the adequacy of its application. Bourdieu’s sociology is characterized by the concrete analysis of material situations with theoretical tools that develop their potential in the very process of analysis. As any careful reader of his works knows, the French sociologist always insists that his sociology advances with extreme caution, undertaking continuous scrutiny of the analytical apparatus used throughout the process of analysis. One of his last works, Meditations pascaliennes, turns almost obsessively on the epistemological limits of some of his most important concepts: habitus, hexis and field. 1 Whilst it is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide a sociological reading of a sociologist of Bourdieu’s standing, reflection on the concept of ‘field’ from outside the field of sociology will provide an introduction to the concep’ts potential applications and limitations. According to Bourdieu, the very configuration of the fields of production of symbolic goods has a determinant effect on the creation and legitimation of a large number of epistemological problems. The eternal question of method (whether empirical, positivist, historicist, hermeneutic or otherwise) that is the investigator’s nightmare and a 1 Pierre Bourdieu, Méditations pascaliennes (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1997).