Abstract:

There are at least five Chinese translations of “reflexive sociology”—“fansi shehuixue”(反思社会学), “fanshenxing shehuixue”(反思性社会学), “fanguan shehuixue”(反观社会学), “fanshen shehuixue”(反身社会学) and “fanshenxing shehuixue”(反身性社会学). Because “fansi”(反思) is the proper and only translation of “reflective”, using “fansi”(反思) to translate “reflexive” will make no term to translate “reflective” which is also a common term in Bourdieu’s works. The original meaning of “reflexive” is “fanshen” (反身). Besides, Bourdieu emphasized practice a lot and practice needs agent’s body. In Chinese, “shen”(身) has the meaning such as “myself”, “yourself” and “himself” and also have the meaning of practice. So, “fanshen shehuixue”(反身社会学) is a proper term for “reflexive sociology”.

Key words: reflexive sociology, Bourdieu, practice, agent