Habits have been repeatedly targeted by critical theories as the medium of domination
and of voluntary servitude. “Habit is a great deadener”, to use Samuel Becketts words for
Theodor W. Adorno’s position, because it embodies the patterns of social unfreedom and
blocks transformation from the bottom. “Second nature”, in György Lukács
understanding, appears to be the most pernicious form of domination, making bodies
functioning and able to fulGill the needs of capitalist society by a reiGication of their
capacities.
The critique of habituated forms of domination continues to be a crucial task in face of
new, but also of perpetuated forms of oppression. At the same time the conference would
like to broaden the perspective and ask for a more nuanced approach to habits as a topic
for critical theories. Are habits, precisely because of their embodied dimension, not also
contested places of domination, in which more or less visible forms of resistance emerge
or break in? What about habits that are considered “bad” by society, could they not also
bear subversive potential? Isn't social transformation itself a process of (different)
habitualization? Are there not different forms of habit? And, Ginally, does capitalism not
also exert domination by making it impossible to build up habits, as forms of involuntary
servitude in (post-)colonial and racist contexts or precarization for example show?
In these different perspectives the conference aims at deepening the understanding of
the roles of habits for critical theories and recalibrating their importance for a radical
critique of capitalism and the question of liberation.

Organization: Prof. Dr. Raimondi and the Arbeitsbereich
Registration: linus.aigner@fu-berlin.de