From habitus to realistic self

a French-British conversation on Agency

Abstract

This paper examines the problem of agency from a dialogue between Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice and Margaret Archer's social realism. It is based on a comparative reflection between the Bourdieusian concept of habitus and Archer's realist conception of self. It is argued that Archer retains some basic insights from Bourdieu’s reflection (primacy of practice, processual and stratified approach to the social world, rejection of the macro/micro binarism). Although, from a strong dialogue with Roy Bhaskar's critical realism and the pragmatic tradition, she breaks with the structuralist residue that marks the Bourdieusian approach. Thus, she restores not only the autonomy and reflexivity of subjects but also their temporal primacy and causal efficacy in relation to social and cultural structures.