ABSTRACT
The term habitus, as used by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, aims at analyzing embodied practical schemes that are related to the social position of an agent. Agents and groups occupying positions in the field always try to make a distinction between themselves and other groups in order to legitimize, enhance, and secure their own position in society or in a particular field. Contestation was common among leading habitus groups of the military resistance but also between leadership and subaltern rank-and-file soldiers. Power practices in habitus groups become aligned along one of these power rationales, thereby forming a combination of knowledge and power, which Foucault calls meshes of power or a dispositif. In patron-client relationships, the clients seek the protection of powerful patrons who are able to guarantee their basic subsistence and security. Habitus groups are constructed according to the entire set of factors, such as shared social backgrounds, shared life courses, shared discourses, and shared power practices.
