Habitus-Analysis: a method to analyze cognitive operators of practical logic
Heinrich Schäfer · PUB – Publications at Bielefeld University (Bielefeld University) · 2009
It is well known that Pierre Bourdieu did not develop a qualitative method -comparable with the construct of the social space (La Distinction) -allowing the analysis of habitus.The present paper sketches an outline of such a model, based upon field research on the Pentecostal movement during wartime in Guatemala (1985) and validated with Pentecostals in many occasions during 1995 to 2003 in Latin America.The method is based upon the theories of habitus and practical logic.It provides techniques for the analysis of qualitative research material and for the reconstruction of the actor's habitus and (religious) identity as a network of dispositions.First, the model is transformative and shows how religious actors cope with experiences of uncertainty or crisis and develop from there cognitive patterns of perception, judgment and action as well as identities and strategies.Second, the comparison of two such models shows how differential coping with uncertainty develops out of the mere difference between given social positions and, accordingly, different kinds of crisis experience -although both groups are working with the same inventory of religious symbols.Finally, the combination of habitus-analysis with a model of the social space of religious styles allows interpreting the habitus within the social relations of power.After a development during the last 20 years, mostly in Latin America, the method is being tested and formalized since 2006 in different projects at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. 1It is well known that Bourdieu did not develop a method for qualitative research on the subjective side of human praxis.Instead, his empirical studies on habitus, practical logic -on meaning, so to speak -rely much on traditional structuralist binarism.(Bourdieu 1977, 1980) Although the concept of "habitus" is widely used by researches based on Bourdieu's theories -yet there is very few intent to operationalize the concept in a method for qualitative empirical research.2 Especially, the concept still lacks a way of operationalizing the specific 1 This contribution was elaborated in the context of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Research on Religion and Society (CIRRuS).For an account of projects and publications see: http://www.uni- bielefeld.de/%28en%29/theologie/forschung/religionsforschung/forschung/index.html(especially "Publications" and "Open Access". 2 Indeed, there is quite a lot of literature discussing the concept of habitus on a theoretical level.But the author of these lines found only a few intents to deepen the understanding in specific methodology.Diaz-Bone (2000), e.g., locates conventional discourse analysis within the broader