Week 8 The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu: Reconciling Micro and Macro?

Brian Singer
SOCI3692
Monisha Sathivel

Structure, Habitus, Practices

Pierre Bourdieu

In Structure, Habitus, Practices, the main argument that Pierre Bourdieu makes is

power is culturally and symbolically created and constantly reinforced through interplay of

agency and structure. This is done through the habitus. The habitus is socialized norms or

tendencies that guide behavior and thinking. It influences the identity, actions and choices of the

individual. The habitus structures inherent qualities of mind and character in an individual and is

produced by the conditionings associated with a particular class of conditions of existence, this

constitutes of systems of durable and transposable dispositions. (Bourdieu)

The habitus, for Bourdieu, are dispositions, the way you behave, act and think that the

individual is habituated to and is attained unconsciously through socialization, their family,

school etc. Bourdieu distinguishes two things, the habitus of class and the individual habitus. The

habitus of class is the idea that a class of individuals, have communal dispositions in their

lifestyle and so they will have shared orientation through their shared habitus. But the habitus of

class isn’t something that is individual. It’s more of a collective reality.

In distinguishing the individual habitus, Bourdieu goes on to further say that the

individual has his/her own habitus, and within it, has a class habitus. The individual habitus is

then, the singular composition of different collective stratums. The individual can be anyone,

worker or boss, young or old, man or woman, black or white etc. Each individual will therefore

have different characteristics, due to the fact they are coming from a different habitus of class. In

each individual these different characteristics will combine making an individual habitus (as a
 Week 8 The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu: Reconciling Micro and Macro?
Brian Singer
SOCI3692
Monisha Sathivel

package). Everyone is unique but at the same time is made in the collective space. This is one of

the biggest elements that allow us to think from the habitus of class and individual.

Habitus is a product of history; it produces individual and collective practice in

accordance with the schemes generated by history. (Bourdieu) Through a system of ‘present

past’ it reinforces the active presence of past experiences which is instilled in an organism

through thought, perception and action. This ensures the ‘righteousness’ of practices and their

constancy over a period of time, this tends to be more reliable than all formal rules and explicit

norms. These dispositions are shaped by past events and structures and shape current practices

and structures and condition our perception. The habitus is not fixed or permanent and can be

changed under certain conditions or over a long period of time.

The habitus is internalized as a second nature and gives practices their relative autonomy

which makes the individual an agent of the world. It is this immanent law inscribed in the bodies

by identical histories which are the pre-conditions for the coordination of practices but also for

practices of coordination. (Bourdieu)

Through the habitus agents shape their aspirations according to the chance of access to a

particular good and ‘motivations’ and ‘needs’. Due to the fact, the dispositions in the agent are

durably shaped by the possibilities and impossibilities, freedoms and necessities, opportunities

and prohibitions inscribed in their objective conditions which generate disposition objectively

compatible with these conditions and in a sense pre-adapted to their demands. The relation to

what is possible is a relation to power. The habitus protects itself or at least protects the

individual concerned in a sense by favouring experiences that are likely to reinforce it. This
 Week 8 The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu: Reconciling Micro and Macro?
Brian Singer
SOCI3692
Monisha Sathivel

selective perception reinforces the habitus rather than transforming it. The habitus adjusts itself

to probable future which it anticipates and helps bring it about because it reads directly into the

present of the presumed world. Therefore the realistic relation to what is possible is founded on

and limited by power (the habitus which is itself formed by a system of power). The way society

becomes deposited in persons in the form of lasting dispositions, propensities to think, feel and

act in determinant ways inclines agent to ‘cut their coats according to their cloth’ and become the

accomplices of the process.

I found this reading related to Durkheim’s theories. Durkheim suggests that categories

are collective representations; they are a product of society. People collectively constitute

society, but because society is a sui generis phenomenon they are prior to the experiences of any

particular person. In Durkheim’s theory of the division of labour which is not only an economic

theory, he states that there can be many types of spheres- cultural, economical and political

spheres. There are some correlation between mechanical solidarity and class habitus and organic

solidarity and individual habitus. In mechanical solidarity there is mass production, every

individual is similar. In mechanic solidarity there is a conscience collective, which englobes

society consciousness. While in organic solidarity there is space for evolution, development or

organisms and managing complexity. The conscience collective take a different character

depending on the division of labour. Durkheim goes further to say that functionality does not

exist on the level of individual cause. One thinks of a collective mind, society as a collective

actor.
 Week 8 The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu: Reconciling Micro and Macro?
Brian Singer
SOCI3692
Monisha Sathivel

Bibliography

Calhoun, Craig J., Joseph Gerteis, James Moody, Steven Pfaff, and Indermohan Virk.Classical
Sociological Theory: Ed. by Craig Calhoun .. 3rd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print.