Conflicts in the Habitus: The Emotional Work of Becoming Modern

Abstract

This article argues that Bourdieu's concept of habitus, and, in particular, the way habitus is transmitted intergenerationally, can be enhanced by considering conflictual conscious and unconscious processes that emerge in relationships. We suggest that Christopher Bollas's discussions of the 'unthought known' and of 'transformational objects' add relational depth to the concept of habitus and thus contribute to developing a more psycho-social understanding of the relation between agency and change. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a socially mobile chain of a middleclass grandmother, mother and daughter in a period of rapid change, we describe how conflicts in the habitus are produced relationally and can either impede or motivate desires for change. Relational and object relational psychoanalytic theories offer a way to move beyond what we consider a problem in Bourdieu's theory of habitus that derives from his assumption of a subject who either consciously opts for change in habitus when faced with new social demands or non-consciously and unconflictually reproduces habitus.

Fear of Falling – Fear of Fading: The Emotional Dynamics of Positional and Personalised Individualism

“…Recent studies modify the idea of the general spread of middle-class anxiety (Irwin and Elley, 2011; Maxwell and Aggleton, 2014; Rollock et al, 2013). One line of argument notes how experiences of race or working-class background may produce a ‘divided habitus’ (Aarseth et al, 2016; Bourdieu, 1999: 511; Friedman, 2016; Reay, 2015) or a sense of being an ‘outsider within’ (Moore, 2008; Rollock et al, 2013: 255) characterised by conflictual and resistant middle-class positions that, for instance, keep more in touch with notions of integrity and selflessness. Another line of argument is that ‘concerted cultivation’ – Annette Lareau’s (2003) much-cited term for a parenting style that sees the child as a developmental project – is not necessarily indicative of an anxiety-driven quest for future advantage, but, rather, ‘a natural attitude’ that ‘values diverse cultural pursuits as part of a child’s development’ (Irwin and Elley, 2011: 488, see Moore, 2013).…”

Habitus Clivé and the Emotional Imprint of Social Mobility

“…Of course habitus may also be affected by factors other than social mobility, as demonstrated in the work of those like Wacquant (2011, 2014) and Aarsath et al . () and Darmon ().…”

Transborder habitus in a within-country mobility context: A Bourdieusian analysis of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong

“…Therefore, the disjunctures they perceived were consciously or unconsciously transmitted to their children, as Lingshan revealed, ‘My father … reads a lot of books about democracy; I read quite a lot at home too.’ As Sayer (2005, p. 30) argues, in the initial shaping of the habitus, ‘the body already has aversions to … particular conditions, already has a sense of lack, before it gets habituated to a position within the social field’. Both Lingshan’s and Fei’s families’ experiences demonstrate how the conflict between habitus and field of origin is accentuated within the transborder space, resonating with Aarseth et al’s (2016, p. 149) study in which they elaborate how habitus–primary field conflicts are ‘mobilised by social change and transmitted intergenerationally’.…”