An empirical study of Bourdieu’s theory on capital and habitus in the sporting habits of higher education students learning in Central and Eastern Europe

Social exclusion – in sports as well as in all other areas of life – is linked to low socioeconomic status, poverty, unemployment, and low educational attainment. This means that disadvantaged social groups are permanently trapped in a lifestyle lacking physical exercise. In a broader sense, social exclusion from sports activities affects a much wider social spectrum, including groups that suffer disadvantages based on gender, age, place of residence, or disability Spaaij, R., Farquharson, K., & Marjoribanks, T. (2015). Sport and social inequalities. Sociology Compass, 9(5), 400–411. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12254. In Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, a smaller fraction of society has the opportunity to be active regularly, while the majority are left out. Based on Bourdieu's theory on capital and habitus our paper aims to find out what demographic and socialisation factors, as well as how the socio-economic status and the student habitus play roles in student sport activity in five Central and Eastern European countries. Our analysis is based on the database of the questionnaire survey carried out among students in the examined region (PERSIST 2019, N = 2005). Our results show that although students with a higher social status pursue sport more regularly and are more likely to pursue a sport in clubs, gender, habitus, the parental sporting environment, and sporting friends are the main factors that play a positive role in their regular participation.