Making don't knows make sense: Bourdieu, phenomenology and opinion polls

Despite Bourdieu's huge contribution in sociologically operationalizing some of the principles contained in Husserlian phenomenology, this paper argues that by drawing more from this source his criticisms of opinion polls can be extended theoretically and methodologically. In particular, by being aware of the transitions from doxa or ‘dispositional opinion’ to reflective opinion, Husserlian phenomenology gives a theoretical basis which we can draw on to make concrete methodological elaborations, such as in the use of ‘identification bid’ questions, of Bourdieu's account of the drawbacks of opinion polls.