Heinrich Wilhelm Schäfer: HabitusAnalysis 2 – Praxeology and Meaning. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2020, 921 S.

With a preface by Franz Schultheis

After the publication of volume one, HabitusAnalysis 1 – Epistemology and Language, in 2015 in January 2020 the second volume of this approach to praxeological sociology has been published.

We are very pleased that Franz Schultheis, who belonged to the inner circle of Bourdieu’s cooperators, wrote a preface to the book.

Starting from the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, Schäfer composes a methodical approach to habitūs of social actors and the logic of their praxis: Building upon the generative terms of praxeology, he focuses on identity and strategy in processes of internalization, their transformation by means of dispositional schemes, and their externalization in action. The emphasis lies on a theory of dispositions that allows a flexible understanding of identity and strategy formation in the context of social experience and the interplay with social structures. This theory is developed over the course of a three-step analysis on habitus as a network of dispositions, on the dynamics that unfold between the logic of socio-structural processes and practical logic, and on the praxeological assessment of social structures via models of fields and the social space.

This book is the second of three volumes of HabitusAnalysis. While the first volume deals with the epistemological underpinnings of praxeology, this book advances Bourdieu's theory with a special focus on creativity of action in the context of social structures, thereby preparing the methodological design of empirical models in the third volume.

Contents

• Generative Terms

• Creativity in relations

• Practical logic an logic of praxis

• Specific struggles: fields and space

The entire book can be downloadad at Springer.

We also offer a direct link to contents, preface, and introduction as well as to the bibliography.