Habitus

Habitus is a concept from sociology and philosophy that refers to the set of lasting dispositions, acquired through experience and upbringing, that shape how a person perceives, judges and acts in the world. It consists of bodily and mental habits that are learned without the person being fully aware of them.

The term comes from the Latin habitus, meaning condition, state or customary way of being, and has a long history in philosophy, from Aristotle's notion of a acquired disposition to medieval scholastic thought. In the twentieth century the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu turned it into a central tool of social theory. For Bourdieu, habitus consists of dispositions acquired through socialisation, by family, school and surroundings, that guide action in an almost spontaneous way. Thanks to them, a person knows what is appropriate in a given situation without having to calculate it.

To give a simple example, someone raised in a setting where formal speech comes naturally will feel at ease in a job interview, while another person, raised in a different context, may experience the same situation as foreign or intimidating, even though both have the same ability.

The concept remains much debated. Some critics argue that it leaves little room for individual freedom and change, while its supporters see it as an effective way to explain the reproduction of social inequalities without relying solely on economic explanations. It is also widely used today in studies of education, culture and gender.