Capital and Social Classes

The concept of habitus is the accumulation of perceptions, feelings, thoughts, attitudes and behavior habits, or social-cultural preferences and attitudes, which indicate in what manner a person belongs to which society, culture, group or social class .

The notion of the habitus of Latin origin and pluralism expresses the sum of the properties that are unwittingly introduced into the social environment of social development of persons in Bourdieu or the processes of social learning and internalization in the fields. Habitus is a philosophical-sociological project with complex and multiple theoretical connections beyond a concept that is a plain definition of Bourdieu's use. The following briefly refers to the habitus phenomenon with some concept and meaning relations used by Bourdieu.

The first reason leading Bourdieu to develop the habitus design is the observations and research he made during his military service to Algeria, which started the war of independence against French colonialism. Bourdieu observes economic behavior, which in itself is a rational rationale, since it is based on a certain habitus that appears irrational when compared to the West in the "pre-capitalist" rural peasant life that has not yet been surrounded by the rational rhetoric of capitalism or the money economy. As a result of these observations, Bourdieu discovers the rational existence of "constructivist constructions" that associate them as habitus behind behaviors and actions. For example; a peasant lends another peasant's livelihood and explains that he would not ask for anything "I would give him his food if he had left the animal". As the villagers do not receive money or anything else in their lives by giving something in their lives, it is also unacceptable that a full cabinet coming from the neighbor to the house is sent back empty to the neighbor. It is also the "time" and "expectation / fate" of the peasantry that is shaped by the usual exchange relations being shaped around the acquisition of dignity gained by the helping behavior, rather than an understanding of success provided by money or a return. According to the villagers, the time of the living is the circle; you are born, you are alive, you are dead and you are born again for a new life. Determining the future, success and failure belongs to supernatural beings, God, and is only responsible for what they do in their limited life.

The second thing Bordieu discovered is that the villagers, who have habits such as storing grain for hard times and using savory food with their agricultural experiences, can not show the same frugal and careful habits to secure their future when they are money-savvy, they have not developed a habitus. For example; small villagers who are given land are quickly selling these land, spoiling their money and eventually have to work as agricultural workers and migrate to cities. The practical rationale of the villager's total living conditions does not provide a new habitus for the money economy to develop into the abstract power of the forward-looking possibilities. The first result of Bourdieu's study of Max Weber's works intensely during this period is that "internal attitudes" are not religious dogmas but of the total existence conditions of the subjects. The second conclusion is that the motifs of subjects in practical acts rarely overlap with the motives that scientists carry from outside to these subjects in order to explain generational actions.

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