A Clash of Habitus: Britain and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Integrating Elias’s concept of civilising offensive and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, the article contributes to sociological understanding by exploring the transformation in habits of the British population in response to governmental anti-pandemic policies. Drawing on secondary analysis of quantitative data involving the UK Office for National Statistics 2020 Opinions and Lifestyle Surveys mapping the social impact of COVID-19 in Britain, we argue that since the objective conditions of British society have changed under the pandemic as a result of governmental civilising offensive measures imposed top-down onto the population, then habitus has also changed as a consequence of the new social disposition imposed on individuals. Our study finds that the measures enacted by the British government have changed the public and private spheres of individuals in the country, creating a ‘clash of habitus’ in that ‘old’ and ‘new’ dispositions are continuously forming, generating tensions and conflicts. An integrated Bourdieusian and Eliasian analysis permits a nuanced understanding of these changes, seeing them as bound up and produced in correspondence with the broader policy and societal context, interacting with the everyday life that unfolds under anti-pandemic measures in Britain.