Habitus consists of socially ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions. Coined by sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, it is the way that individuals perceive the world around them and react to it. Bourdieu’s work emphasized how social classes, especially the ruling and intellectual classes, preserve their social privileges across generations despite the myth that contemporary society boasts the equality of opportunity and high social mobility.
These habits are not merely coincidental; it is suggested that they are characteristics of survival. That they are actually programmed roadmaps individuals exercise without deliberately calculating them. These solutions are based on gut feelings and intuition, which are believed to be shaped by the environment(s) they experience or reside in. Dispositions create habits, and dispositions are usually shared by individuals with similar social backgrounds, as well as similar life experiences: economic status, religious beliefs, ethnicity, educational level, professional employment, and access to opportunity.
Thus, the habitus represents the way culture and personal history shape the body and the mind; as a result, it shapes the actions of an individual. The dynamic of power, in our society, rely on programmed ways of thought to retain control, they essentially create our habitus. But new attitudes and new moral behaviors can morph the current habitus and lead us into the production of the best possible social structure.
