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A. Pierre Bourdieu: Existentialism and Structuralism

This emphasizes on unconscious models but does not explain individual behavior. Bourdieu inherited a certain structuralist interpretation of the tendency of social structures to reproduce themselves, based on the analysis of symbolic structures and forms of classification. He however critiqued the way Levi-Strauss understood the structures of the mind. .
             After extensively and critically analyzing both the patterns, Bourdieu tried to bridge the gap between the two extremes.
             To best understand Bourdieu's intellectual stance on bridging this gap we must understand two concepts forwarded by him – habitus and practice. Habitus are certain kinds of dispositions which are inculcated. They are "systems of durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures" They are inculcated not just through socialization but also through teachings. Habitus places us in certain individual locations, and that is how these dispositions are learnt. Habitus then determines who we are and what we expect from ourselves. It also places certain limitations on us. Structures are internalized unconsciously and these internalizations are what we expect of ourselves. He writes that "habitus is the source of these series of movies which are objectively organized as strategies without being the product of a genuine strategic intention" Individual hence behave not in terms of rules but in terms of strategies. These strategies are a part of practice. Habitus then conditions us and places limits on possibilities. .
             For Bourdieu, if habitus is constraining then practices are improvisations which agents take up to cope with the limitations of the habitus. Improvisations are structures by time. Time is then both a constraint as well as a resource for the application of practice. Individual improvisations hence have to be fluid enough and not impromptu.


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