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

2.
CASE: Lindy Hop

3.
CASE: Lindy Hop
“Theory building isn‟t
about adding new
knowledge, it‟s about
changing the nature of
the knowledge that we
have.”

4.
CASE: Lindy Hop
THEORY: The role of the habitus in
facilitating and constraining
social mobility.

5.
Pierre Bourdieu

6.
Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.

7.
Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.
• Social Capital: people you know.

8.
Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.
• Social Capital: people you know.
• Cultural Capital: culturally-valorized
resources.

9.
Pierre Bourdieu
• Economic Capital: money you got.
• Social Capital: people you know.
• Cultural Capital: culturally-valorized
resources.
– Objectified: things you own.

10.
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.

11.
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.

12.
Pierre Bourdieu
Habitus: Our body and its knowledges, as it is
shaped by a lifetime of physical repetition.

13.
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.”

14.
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.”

15.
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…”

16.
Fit: When your habitus is well-suited to a social
context.

17.
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.”

18.
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?

19.
David Holmes Photography

20.
Beginning Dancers
• A feminist-friendly community

21.
Beginning Dancers
• A feminist-friendly community
– Performances

22.
Beginning Dancers
• A feminist-friendly community
– Performances
– Gender-neutral language

23.
Beginning Dancers
• A feminist-friendly community
– Performances
– Gender-neutral language
– Role switching

24.
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.”

25.
Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For men, shaking off hypermasculinity and fear of
femininity

26.
Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For men, shaking off hypermasculinity and fear of
femininity
• No brute force

27.
Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For men, shaking off hypermasculinity and fear of
femininity
• No brute force
• Add feminized body movements

28.
Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For women, shaking off hyperfemininity.

29.
Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For women, shaking off hyperfemininity
• Drop feminine habits

30.
Beginning Dancers
• A lindy hop habitus
– For women, shaking off hyperfemininity
• Drop feminine habits
• Have weight

31.
Intermediate Dancers
• Disconnection

32.
Intermediate Dancers
• Disconnection
– Leads offer follows independence

33.
Intermediate Dancers
• Disconnection
– Leads offer follows independence
– Follows take it

34.
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.”

35.
Intermediate Dancers
“Take the suggestion that
the lead gives you. If you
don‟t like it, you can
change it once you have
it.”

36.
Advanced Dancers
• Connection

37.
Advanced Dancers
• Connection
– via bodies

38.
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…”

39.
Advanced Dancers
“Flow with your partner.
Whatever they do—adjust.”

40.
Advanced Dancers
The “dynamic is a lot more complicated that the lead
leads and the follow follows.”

41.
Advanced Dancers
• Connection
– via bodies
– via the music

42.
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.‟”

43.
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.

44.
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