It is just over ten years since the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu passed away. In that decade, the diffusion and influence of his work around the world has grown exponentially, making him the first and only social scientist of the second twentieth century to join Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max 'Weber among the classics of social science. This milestone is being marked by the publication of Sur l'Etat (On the State), Bourdieus lecture course at the College de France from 1989 to 1992, and by special conferences and dossiers in leading national media in several countries. In this interview, Loic Wacquant discusses Bourdieus intellectual legacy and the increasing significance of his former teachers work for contemporary scholarly research and public debate.