Thinking politics sociologically - The Daily Life of the Professional Politician between Innovation and Determinism

: The aim of my essay is to present some reflections on the possibility of thinking politics sociologically, from the point of view of a sociologist of everyday-life. During more than one year of ethnographic research on the field, I followed sixteen politicians in Calabria (south of Italy), eleven men and five women, using theshadowing technique and interviews. I will, here, attempt to resume some results of my enquiry, focusing in particular on the relation between innovation and determinism, as it comes out from the everyday actions of the political agents. Referring to the socialtheory of Pierre Bourdieu and to his analysis of the political field, I will underline how this latter influences practically the political agents. The internal dynamics in the political field seem to firmly bind the politicians and by consequence these latter appearto be forced to lay down experience and innovation. Their behaviour and their actions are determined by the political field’s logic and they seem compelled to act and take the world for granted.It appears therefore that there is no space for imagination in the professional politician’s everyday-life. The political field seems to spread an inescapable determinism.