Introduction to first edition

The book commences with a brief contextual overview of Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus followed by a keynote chapter by Pierre Bourdieu himself. This Introduction serves to identify the key components of habitus which are addressed by the various authors throughout the volume: • habitus as social space: as a sense of one’s place and a sense of the other’s place • fields and games • the several forms of capital; economic, social and cultural • the role of symbolic capital • aesthetic reflexivity • practical knowledge It also seeks to identify particular areas of challenge for habitus: its durability and/or adaptability and the notion of habitus as oppression. The chapters which follow include reflections on each of these aspects of habitus drawn together under the themes of: • whose habitus? • what habitus? • how habitus is constructed • oppressive habitus - resistance, toleration and beyond • durable and/or mutable habitus The main body of the work is divided into three parts, each guided by questions central to conceptions, operation of and challenges for habitus.