Pierre Bourdieu was a leading French social and cultural theorist. He practiced cultural and social theory in France in the tradition of the social and cultural thought of Émile Durkheim and Claude Lévi-Strauss. In addition to publishing in social and cultural theory, he worked in the sociology of art and sociology of education. This entry examines his cultural and social theory as it relates to economic theory, economic sociology, legal theory, and the sociology of law. Leading works of his that are examined are Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, Outline of a Theory of Practice, Pascalian Meditations, Homo Academicus, and The Rules of Art. His influence in social theory, cultural theory, sociology of education, and sociology of art are discussed, as is his influence onto economics and law—economic theory and legal theory. His political thought is also discussed as it relates to a critique of classical political theory and the historical foundations of political economy. Examined is also his influence onto continental philosophy, analytic philosophy, and pragmatist philosophy, as well as the history of philosophy and history of ideas (intellectual history and the history of political thought). The conclusion reached is that Bourdieu was the most important French social theorist since Durkheim and Lévi-Strauss.