ABSTRACT

The backdrop to this chapter is my own critique of the use of habitus within educational research (Reay, 2004), where I argue that it is used pervasively but mostly as intellectual display without doing much, if any, analytic work. Reinforcing this tendency to utilize habitus superficially, as a form of academic gravitas rather than an active analytic tool, are the ways in which it is regularly deployed independently of the concept of field. So this chapter is attempting to do a number of different things. It is examining the utility of the notion of habitus in empirical work, but also its limitations. However, beyond exploring habitus’ analytic potential, the chapter is attempting to make connections between habitus as a conceptual tool and the possibilities it holds for contributing to theoretical explanations, not only of social reproduction, but also of social transformation.