Habitus: From the inside out and the outside in

Journal/Book: Theor Psychol. 1996; 6: 2455 Teller Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Sage Publications Inc. 647-665.

Abstract: Examinations of the body have been productive sites for analyzing aspects of contemporary culture in general and issues of identity/difference in particular. They have also become battlegrounds for position-claiming within both the public arena and disciplinary practices, that is, bodies claimed in/for/of x discipline. I believe it would be more productive if, in the future, we were to begin to examine bodies in relation to power regimes instead. Bodies-and art-have been found to occupy the middle ground, the space between disciplines, between the 'already given or said' in everyday life and knowledge alike. I have found navigational assistance for the spaces 'in between' in Bourdieu's sociology, especially his concepts of the field and habitus. This paper is an articulation of my present position-that of an itinerant academic-and my presentational/rhetorical strategies reflect my appropriation of the canonical texts of the field, tempered by the disposition of one desirous of occupying a 'social space' within the academic 'field' and 'the functioning ethos' of feminist politics. My narrative can be read as a feminist 'take' on Bourdieu and a presentation of interdisciplinarity as social practice. It can also be read as a demonstration of a 'habitus' at work, or as a practice of writing the body.

Note: Article C Pizanias, POB 2441, Stn M, Calgary, Ab T2P 3C1, Canada

Keyword(s): art; body; Bourdieu; feminism; habitus

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