In this article, we demonstrate the critical value of Loïc Wacquant’s reworking of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the bureaucratic field for the study of nonprofit social services. In particular, we suggest that this approach offers a richer understanding of the neoliberalization of nonprofit social service agencies. To illustrate this point, we draw upon interviews with nonprofit social service providers in Winnipeg, Manitoba, examining the field competition between welfare and neoliberal orientations to social service practice, as nonprofit agency managers seek to adapt to the shifting conditions of the bureaucratic field. Building upon Wacquant’s analysis, we argue that the welfare dispositions presented in our interviews are inadequate to protect the social services from neoliberal restructuring. Instead, we present the reflexive practices articulated by Indigenous social service agencies as a model for a counter-transposition that could offer a more powerful challenge to the neoliberalization of the bureaucratic field.
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