From Bourdieu to Lahire: Social determinism and pluralist consumer practices

Abstract

This article sets out to introduce Bernard Lahire’s recent reiterations of the Bourdieusian approach to the body of consumer research. Lahire’s work accounts for dissonant cultural practices at an individual level. He questions the singularity of the habitus, the relative autonomy of fields, and the homology of the social practices proposed by Bourdieu. His work could make a significant contribution to consumer research in three ways: (1) it reiterates the Bourdieusian concepts in a way that better addresses the problems of a society made up of pluralist yet multi-determined individuals, (2) it reasserts the importance of individual-scale analysis of the social forces that more subjectivist approaches would be at risk of masking and (3) it sets out a way to understand socialisation by combining contexts through the incorporation of certain dispositions. Based on these contributions, this article sets out a research programme with a view to better linking contexts, dispositions and pluralist consumer practices on an individual scale.

Collaborative practices and consumeristhabitus: An analysis of the transformative mechanisms of collaborative consumption

“…Furthermore, Bourdieu's practice theory and the habitus concept are not exempt from criticism (Corcuff, 1999;Lahire, 1998;Mucchielli, 1999;Trizzulla et al, 2016;Warde, 2004). Having completed our research, we reject the idea that the habitus is a fixist system which is content to see reproduction rather than evolution (Mucchielli, 1999).…”

“…While the habitus determines practices, it is also determined by them (Hilgers, 2006). This concept, which is central to practice theory (Bourdieu, 1980), represents a long-standing tradition in social science (Camic, 1986) and has contributions to offer the field of marketing (Moingeon, 1993;Holt, 1998;Trizzulla et al, 2016). Müller (2006) tells us it represents a 'hyphen' between structure and action and allows us to connect individual history to collective experience in various contexts.…”

“…Habitus acts as a matrix for perception, appreciation and action (Bourdieu, [1972), and the expression of habitus is analysed at the level of the field (Bourdieu, 1980(Bourdieu, , 1994. Trizzulla et al (2016) point out that the notion of the field is rarely referred to in consumer research, except implicitly when discussing the field of consumption. The field is defined as a social space characterised by objective relationships which are 'the locus of a logic and a necessity that are specific and cannot be reduced to those that regulate other fields' (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992: 73).…”

“…In this context, a habitus may be expressed through collective practices but may also evolve in accordance with the secondary socialisation aspects of the agents in that field. The original equation presented in La distinction (Bourdieu, 1979) evolved over time (Trizzulla et al, 2016). Adopting this more flexible vision of habitus is not a betrayal of the original concept but rather an attempt to avoid its reification.…”

“…The habitus concept helps us achieve a nuanced understanding of the kind of change involved. Habitus is recognised for its properties of durability and transcendence (Bourdieu, 1980), while its unity and stability are questionable over time (Bourdieu, 1980;Trizzulla et al, 2016). If the manifestation of the consumerist habitus through the practice of new modes of collaborative consumption is the product of a homologous relationship with the B2C market relations, habitus can be seen to have a generative property - Bourdieu's (1980) 'structuring structure'.…”