Habitus: A Sense of Place

Book excerpt: Habitus is a concept developed by the late French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, as a 'sense of one's place...a sense of the other's place'. It relates to our perceptions of the positions (or 'place') of ourselves and other people in the world in which we live and how these perceptions affect our actions and interactions with places and people. Habitus implies that a web of complex processes links the physical, the social and the mental. Inspired by this concept, this compelling book brings together leading scholars from interdisciplinary fields to examine ways in which spaces and places are constructed, interpreted and used by different people. This second edition contains updated chapter material, together with an entirely new introduction and revised conclusions which recognise the importance of Bourdieu's work. This publication is a tribute to Pierre Bourdieu's remarkable contribution to the fields of sociology, anthropology, geography, political philosophy and urban planning.