Theorizing change

Between reflective judgment and the inertia of political Habitus

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6260419
AutoresMihaela Mihai (0000-0002-7576-4561, University of York, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume15
Fascículo1
Páginas22-42
Data de publicação2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEuropean Journal of Political Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1474-8851 • E-ISSN: 1741-2730
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1474885114537634
OpenAlexW2027134013
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas6

In an effort to delineate a more plausible account of political change, this paper reads Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory as a corrective to exaggerated enthusiasm about the emancipatory force of reflection. This revised account valorizes both Bourdieu’s insights into the acquired, embodied, durable nature of the political habitus and judgment theorists’ trust in individuals’ reflection as a perpetual force of novelty and spontaneity in the public sphere of democratic societies. The main purpose of this exercise is to reveal the mix of continuity and discontinuity that is characteristic of most transformations in the political common sense of democratic societies. In other words, this paper seeks to offer a more complex understanding of the inertial character of reflective judgment and of the difficulty of shifting the categories that define the political common sense. By cross-pollinating the ever-growing literature on reflective judgment and Bourdieu’s sombre theory of politics, we can better calibrate our expectations regarding the possibilities of significant democratic transformation in late capitalist societies

Cultural capital · Democracy · Epistemology · Habitus · Political science · Political subjectivity · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics