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Lisa Wade, PhD
Professor of Sociology
Occidental College

The Emancipatory
Promise of the Habitus

Lisa Wade - The Emancipatory Promise of the Habitus

CASE: Lindy Hop
“Theory building isn‟t
about adding new
knowledge, it‟s about
changing the nature of
the knowledge that we
have.”

CASE: Lindy Hop
THEORY: The role of the habitus in
facilitating and constraining
social mobility.

Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.

Pierre Bourdieu
• Social Capital: people you know.

Pierre Bourdieu
• Cultural Capital: culturally-valorized
resources.

Pierre Bourdieu
resources.

– Objectified: things you own.

Pierre Bourdieu
resources.

– Institutionalized: nods from important and recognized
institutions.

Pierre Bourdieu
resources.

– Institutionalized: nods from important and recognized
institutions.
– Embodied: external wealth converted to bodily
appearances, capacities, and knowledges.

Pierre Bourdieu
Habitus: Our body and its knowledges, as it is
shaped by a lifetime of physical repetition.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty
“I can type and to that extent „I know‟ where
the various letters are on the keyboard. I do
not have to find the letters one by one... My
fingers just move in the direction of the
correct keys. Indeed, when I am in full flow, I
seem actually to be thinking with my fingers
in the respect that I do not know in advance of
typing exactly what I will say.”

“It is not just that I do not need to think about
where the keys are... The break with reflective
thought is more severe than this. I could not
give a reflective, discursive account of the
keyboard layout. I do not „know‟ where the
keys are and to make any half decent attempt
at guessing I have to imagine I am typing and
watch where my fingers head for when I
come to the appropriate letter.”

“… pushing the brakes becomes as „natural‟ a
way of stopping to me as halting in my stride,
[and] I incorporate the external space of the
car; its power, velocity, and acceleration... I
feel its size and speed as surely as that of my
own body... I do not think about the car. I
think as the car, from the point of view of the
car…”

Fit: When your habitus is well-suited to a social
context.

Sandra Lee Bartky
“In groups of men, those with higher status
typically assume looser and more relaxed
postures; the boss lounges comfortably…
while the applicant sits tense and rigid on the
edge of his seat. Higher-status individuals
may touch their subordinates more than they
themselves get touched; they initiate more eye
contract and are smiled at by their inferiors
more than they are observed to smile in
return.”

CASE: Lindy Hop
social mobility.
QUESTION: Can we facilitate social change
by intervening at the level of
the body?

Beginning Dancers
• A feminist-friendly community

Beginning Dancers
– Performances

Beginning Dancers
– Performances
– Gender-neutral language

Beginning Dancers
– Performances
– Gender-neutral language
– Role switching

Beginning Dancers
“When I‟m dancing with
Rebecca, we switch off all the
time. I lead, she follows. She
leads, I follow. Sometimes she
initiates the switch and
sometimes I do. Sometimes it
looks like she‟s following, but
she‟s leading, and vice versa.”

Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For men, shaking off hypermasculinity and fear of
femininity

Beginning Dancers
femininity
• No brute force

Beginning Dancers
femininity
• No brute force
• Add feminized body movements

Beginning Dancers
– For women, shaking off hyperfemininity.

Beginning Dancers
– For women, shaking off hyperfemininity
• Drop feminine habits

Beginning Dancers
– For women, shaking off hyperfemininity
• Drop feminine habits
• Have weight

Intermediate Dancers
• Disconnection

• Disconnection
– Leads offer follows independence

• Disconnection
– Leads offer follows independence
– Follows take it

“The leader can suggest
something to the follower.
But I pay attention to how
strong the lead is. If it‟s
not very strong, I may do
something different. I‟m
still not breaking what he
wanted me to do because I
sensed how strongly he
meant it.”

“Take the suggestion that
the lead gives you. If you
don‟t like it, you can
change it once you have
it.”

Advanced Dancers
• Connection

Advanced Dancers
• Connection
– via bodies

Advanced Dancers
“Someone‟s got to initiate, but it‟s not that one
person is leading and one person is following. Both
are leading and following. I don‟t even like those
words. I use initiating and following through. Both
leads and follows do both…”

Advanced Dancers
“Flow with your partner.
Whatever they do—adjust.”

Advanced Dancers
The “dynamic is a lot more complicated that the lead
leads and the follow follows.”

Advanced Dancers
• Connection
– via bodies
– via the music

Advanced Dancers
“Ideally, not all leads and
follows react the same way
to music because they‟re two
different people. Watch a
movie together and there are
different opinions. Dance
explores these same kinds of
differences. When I dance
with Joy, I try to listen to her
[with my body] and I think,
„Oh, I‟ve never heard that
song that way before.‟”

CASE: Lindy Hop
social mobility.
QUESTION: Can we facilitate social change
by intervening at the level of
the body?
RESULTS: The habitus can be
emancipating as well as
constraining.

Questions?
Lisa Wade, PhD
www.lisa-wade.com
@lisadwade
Credits:
• David Holmes Photography
• Laura Malischke Photography
• Kevin St. Laurent and Jo Hoffberg, iDance.net
• PBS, People Like Us
• Missouri Historical Society
• www.prblog.typepad.com
• www.theclassywoman.blogspot.com

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Lisa Wade - The Emancipatory Promise of the Habitus

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