Questions for Today

• 1. What exactly does Bourdieu mean by habitus?

• 2. What problems does the concept of habitus solve for Bourdieu ?

• 3. How can we decide whether to use or discard the concept of habitus ?

1. What exactly does Bourdieu mean by habitus?

• Les conditionnements associes a une classe particuliere de conditions d’existence produisent des habitus, systemes de dispositions durables et transposables, structures structurees predisposees a fonctionner comme structures structurantes, c’est a dire en tant que principes generateurs et organisateurs de pratiques et de representations qui peuvent etre objectivement adaptees a leur but sans supposer la visee consciente de fins et la maitrise expresse des operations necessaires pour les atteindre, objectivement *reglees* et *regulieres* sans etre en rien le produit de l’obeisance a des regles, et, etant tout cela, collectivement orchestrees sans etre le produit de l’action organisatrice d’un chef d’orchestre.

English translation on page 53.

• The conditionings associated with a particular class of conditions of existence produce habitus, systems of durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures, that is, as principles which generate and organize practices and representations that can be objectively adapted to their outcomes without presupposing a conscious aiming at ends or an express mastery of the operations necessary to attain them. Objectively *regulated* and *regular* without being in any way the product of obedience to rules, they can be collectively orchestrated without being the product of the organizing action of a conductor.

• Before we go looking for an example of a habitus, let us examine the elements of the definition so we will know how to recognize one if we find one…….

Conditions of existence

• Les conditionnements associes a une classe particuliere des conditions d’existence,…..

• The conditions associated with a particular class of conditions of existence….

…produce dispositions…

• Produisent des habitus, systemes des dispositions….

• Produce habitus, systems of …. dispositions….

Durable and transposable

• Systemes de dispositions durables et transposables,…

• Systems of durable, transposable dispositions, …

structured structures

• …structures structurees…

• …structured structures…

structuring structures

• Predisposees a fonctionner comme structures structurantes

• Predisposed to function as structuring structures

Functioning as principles

• …principes generateurs et organisateurs de pratiques et de representations…

• …as principles which generate and organize practices and representations…

Don’t forget that it is systems of Don’t forget that it is systems of DISPOSITIONSDISPOSITIONS which are which are supposed to be doing all this supposed to be doing all this stuff, organizing practices and stuff, organizing practices and all the rest of it ……..all the rest of it ……..

unconscious goal-seeking ?

…qui peuvent etre objectivement adaptees a leur but sans supposer la visee consciente de fins…

…that can be objectively adapted to their outcomes without presupposing a conscious aiming at ends…

“regulated” and “regular”

• …objectivement *reglees* et *reguliers* sans etre en rien le produit de l’obeissance a des regles, et, etant tout cela, collectivement orchestrees sans etre le produit de l’action organisatrice d’un chef d’orchestre.

• …objectively regulated and regular without being in any way the product of obedience to rules, they [habitus] can be collectively orchestrated without being the product of the organizing action of a conductor.

2. What problems does the 2. What problems does the concept of concept of habitus habitus solve for solve for

Bourdieu?Bourdieu?““Of all the oppositions that artificially divide social Of all the oppositions that artificially divide social science, the most fundamental, and the most ruinous, is science, the most fundamental, and the most ruinous, is the one that is set up between subjectivism and the one that is set up between subjectivism and objectivism.” p.25objectivism.” p.25

Bourdieu invented the technical term, Bourdieu invented the technical term, habitushabitus for the for the purpose of solving problems he believed to be caused by purpose of solving problems he believed to be caused by this “ruinous opposition.”this “ruinous opposition.”

Free WillFree Will

The concept of The concept of habitushabitus resolves the conflict between resolves the conflict between the objective principle of determination by the objective principle of determination by environmental conditions and the subjective environmental conditions and the subjective principle of freedom.principle of freedom.

““As an acquired system of generative schemes, the As an acquired system of generative schemes, the habitushabitus makes possible the free production of all the makes possible the free production of all the thoughts, perceptions, and actions inherent in the thoughts, perceptions, and actions inherent in the particular conditions of its production – and only particular conditions of its production – and only those…those…

……This infinite yet strictly limited generative capacity This infinite yet strictly limited generative capacity is difficult to understand only so long as one remains is difficult to understand only so long as one remains locked in the usual antinomies …..” p.55locked in the usual antinomies …..” p.55

Social Reality

• Contrary to positivist materialism: the objects of knowledge are constructed, not passively recorded.

• Contrary to intellectualist idealism: the principle of this construction is the system of structured, structuring dispositions, the habitus. P. 52

Continuity in Social Life

• Habitus, a system of dispositions, is a present past that tends to perpetuate itself into the future….

• It is the principle of the continuity and regularity in social life,

• which objectivism sees in social life without being able to account for it. P. 54

Institutions

• Habitus makes it possible to inhabit institutions, to appropriate them practically, and so to keep them in activity….

• It is because the habitus exploits the body’s readiness to take seriously the performative magic of the social …

• that the king, the banker, or the priest are able to be the monarchy, financial capitalism, or the Church, made flesh. P. 57

Reinventing Economics• The absurdities of economic

theory flow from thinking of practice in terms of the logic of decisions of the will (i.e. from subjectivism).

• Habitus corrects economic theory by starting from the premise that decisions and the “systems of preferences” that underlie them depend not only on the previous choices of the decider, but also on the conditions in which the “choices” have been made…

• Habitus replaces the supposedly self-transparent act of economic choice with the real logic of action. pp. 40-51, 56-57.

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3. How can we decide whether to use or discard the concept of habitus ?