The Reproduction Of Practice In Habitus And Its Implications For Social Mobility

In this paper it is argued that Bourdieu’s theory of practice presents an overdeterministic picture of practice. Furthermore the weaknesses of habitus are systematically discussed. This is followed by a discussion on how these weaknesses overemphasize reproduction of practice. This leads to a scheme in which social mobility rarely occurs. Empirical studies are used to evaluate how accurate this scheme is. It is concluded that it is partly accurate, and that habitus is useful for explaining the problems of social mobility. Habitus can be used to frame public policies in areas such as immigration and upwards social mobility.