Politicising the psychology of social class: The relevance of Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus for psychological research

Abstract

In this article we discuss what Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus can add to psychologically informed debates around social class. We argue that habitus offers a way of coming to terms with the complexity and different dimensions of social class. For Bourdieu, habitus conceptualises the internalisation of social structures, how the “outer” becomes the “inner.” This distinct psychological question is critical for Bourdieu’s “psychoanalysis of the social.” We argue that Bourdieu’s habitus ties in with psychologically informed views on classed existence, but can also function as a tool to further psychological studies by suggesting a broader focus and pointing to aspects that tend to be underrepresented in mainstream psychological research, and that are also difficult to dissect from a psychological vantage point. In particular, questions of structural (power) inequalities and their reproduction on a communal as well as on an individual level are at the core of Bourdieu’s habitus concept, but these are often absent from contemporary class analysis. Finally, we argue that for all its complexity, the habitus concept can inform research on a practical level by enabling exploration of the complexity and messiness of the classed nature of everyday experience.