The Big Drum

There is some debate around structure and agency in Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. On reading Bourdieu’s work it can be understood why a great deal of empirical research suggests class reproduction in the context of participation in different sports. An examination of the changing nature of Scottish mountaineering, during the period from 1920 to 1960, however, gives an almost unique insight into how a class-based sporting habitus can be changed by the dialectical exchange of dispositions that can occur when the dominance of a class fraction is challenged by another.