Habitus: An Affective Reservoir of Immanent Dispositions

Abstract

Chapter Two builds on the traditional definition of habitus and on its recent developments to argue that habitus needs to be thought of as an affective reservoir of immanent dispositions, where affinities stick and are primed across an emotional trajectory to instinctively react in some situations or reflexively deliberate in others. The chapter emphasises oft-overlooked aspects of habitus such as conatus and the cathectic, and points to how different orientations towards illusio can be an important limitation for an individual’s practice. The sensations and feelings we experience in certain social situations accumulate in dispositions over time. Dispositions are therefore enacted, that is they emerge or spring forth at any given time through affinities. Habitus is essentially an antenna to detect the feel of a space, a capacitor that stores affinities and a transformer that then regulates an array of performative dispositions.