Social inequalities as a context for the formation of habitus

Habitus is a Latin word meaning “posture of the body,” but it can also be translated as “behavior.” In social theory, the concept of habitus, as developed by Bourdieu, is one of the most well-known, typically referring to the objective and subjective conditioning of members within certain social groups, which supports the reproduction of power relations. In this article, the perspectives of two significant sociologists from the latter half of the twentieth century—Pierre Bourdieu and Norbert Elias—are considered. Their similarities and differences regarding the definition of habitus, the integration of habitus into their broader theoretical frameworks, and its relationship to long-term social processes, figurations, fields, and social inequality are examined comparatively.