Bourdieu's death has left a great intellectual void in the French sociological community. This article intends, first of all, to state the struggles in the academic field that have followed this event. In order to show the processes by which the transmission of his inheritance has been carried out, we must distinguish the institutional assets, which could be bequeathed by Bourdieu himself to his followers, from the intellectual positions. The chances to aspire to this main inheritance seem to be divided between three candidates - Bernard Lahire, Jean-Claude Kaufmann and Gisèle Sapiro - authors who are at different stages of their careers. They seem to be the only ones to make a respectful critique of Bourdieu's theory and to propose its full extension. The first two authors begin from the concept of habitus, the last one from that of field . Last but not least, I intend to make some comments on how Bourdieu's theory can nourish the Brazilian academic debate in this domain.
Pierre Bourdieu; educational sociology; french academic field