Habitus

Habitus is a concept developed by the French philosopher, Pierre Bourdieu, as a "sense of one's place...a sense of the other's place". It relates to our perceptions of space and place and how these perceptions affect our actions, not only in shaping the form of environments, but also simply in our experience and interaction with places. Habitus implies that a web of complex processes inseparably links the physical, the social and the mental. Inspired by this concept, this text examines the ways in which spaces and places are constructed, read and used by different people. It is divided into sections guided by the following three questions: How does the notion of habitus help us to understand international and national political structures and activities? Does habitus help explain processes of place-making in relation to practices of the built environment? How durable is habitus - might it undergo transformation in changing circumstances?