Pierre Bourdieu argued that social mobility is inhibited not just by our access to income and wealth, but by the inscription of our social class onto our very body in the form of our habitus. Our knowledges, appearance, and abilities are class-dependent, such that our bodies reveal our origins.  This disadvantages those who occupy subordinated positions in society by making it difficult for them to fit in amongst the advantaged.  While most research on the habitus has emphasized how it inhibits social mobility, I draw on scholars who argue that the uneven nature of the social world can create a fractured habitus.  If we stumble upon emancipatory spaces, then, we may learn bodily habits that empower us.  Drawing on an ethnography of lindy hop -- a vintage swing dance -- I show that dancers are taught to use their bodies in ways that disrupt the conventional masculine and feminine habitus.  I conclude that progressive social change may very well be advanced by focusing on the body as well of, or ahead of, the mind. More at www.lisa-wade.com

1. Lisa Wade, PhD
Professor of Sociology
Occidental College
The Emancipatory
Promise of the Habitus

4. CASE: Lindy Hop

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

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

7. Pierre Bourdieu

8. Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.

9. Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.
• Social Capital: people you know.

10. Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.
• Social Capital: people you know.
• Cultural Capital: culturally-valorized
resources.

11. Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.
• Social Capital: people you know.
• Cultural Capital: culturally-valorized
resources.
– Objectified: things you own.

12. Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.
• Social Capital: people you know.
• Cultural Capital: culturally-valorized
resources.
– Objectified: things you own.
– Institutionalized: nods from important and recognized
institutions.

13. Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.
• Social Capital: people you know.
• Cultural Capital: culturally-valorized
resources.
– Objectified: things you own.
– Institutionalized: nods from important and recognized
institutions.
– Embodied: external wealth converted to bodily
appearances, capacities, and knowledges.

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

16. 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.”

17. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
“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.”

19. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
“… 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…”

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

21. 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.”

22. CASE: Lindy Hop
THEORY: The role of the habitus in
facilitating and constraining
social mobility.
QUESTION: Can we facilitate social change
by intervening at the level of
the body?

23. David Holmes Photography

24. Beginning Dancers
• A feminist-friendly community

25. Beginning Dancers
• A feminist-friendly community
– Performances

26. Beginning Dancers
• A feminist-friendly community
– Performances
– Gender-neutral language

27. Beginning Dancers
• A feminist-friendly community
– Performances
– Gender-neutral language
– Role switching

28. 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.”

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

30. Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For men, shaking off hypermasculinity and fear of
femininity
• No brute force

31. Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For men, shaking off hypermasculinity and fear of
femininity
• No brute force
• Add feminized body movements

32. Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For women, shaking off hyperfemininity.

33. Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For women, shaking off hyperfemininity
• Drop feminine habits

34. Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For women, shaking off hyperfemininity
• Drop feminine habits
• Have weight

35. Intermediate Dancers
• Disconnection

36. Intermediate Dancers
• Disconnection
– Leads offer follows independence

37. Intermediate Dancers
• Disconnection
– Leads offer follows independence
– Follows take it

38. Intermediate Dancers
“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.”

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

40. Advanced Dancers
• Connection

41. Advanced Dancers
• Connection
– via bodies

42. 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…”

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

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

45. Advanced Dancers
• Connection
– via bodies
– via the music

46. 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.‟”

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

48. 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