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Key words: habit * habitus * Bourdieu * theory of action * intervention
ABSTRACT
The work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has stimulated new interest in habituated forms of conduct. His concept of habitus has become a leading reference in the growing sociological literature on theories of human action as practices. This article presents Bourdieu's concept of habitus by calling attention to its intellectual context and identifying the features that relate to the sociology of habit. The article identifies common characteristics of action regulated by habit and offers four programmatic implications for occupational therapy interventions.
A cursory survey of major college textbooks in sociology today shows that very few even mention habit as a socially significant form of human behavior, and none discuss it extensively. Even the professional sociological literature gives little attention to it (Camic, 1986). l This has not always been the case. The founders of modern sociology, both European and American, acknowledged the importance of habit and integrated that idea into their conceptual frameworks.2 The term, however, was excised from sociological vocabulary in the early 20th century because of efforts to institutionalize sociology as an academic discipline distinct from behaviorist psychology. Behaviorism depicted the notion of habit as largely a biological reflex.3
The importance of habit in human action has not been completely lost, though, particularly by a few social theorists familiar with the philosophical tradition of phenomenology. In sociology in recent years, these few voices have resurrected habit as worthy of special consideration (Baldwin, 1988a, 1988b; Camic, 1986; Giddens, 1991; Mixon, 1980; Ostrow, 1981, 1987; Turner, 1994). Most notably the work of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has stimulated new interest in habituated forms of conduct. His concept of habitus has become a leading reference in the growing sociological literature on theories of human action as practices.
This article presents Bourdieu's concept of habitus and gives special attention to the features that relate to a sociology of habit. The article concludes with a few implications for occupational therapists interested in making habits a point of therapeutic intervention.
Bourdieu's Concept of Habitus
The term habitus derives from the Latin verb habere meaning "to have" or "to hold." The concept grows out of Bourdieu's attempt to address the question, how is human...