Habit, Speculative Pragmatism, and Social Transformation

Pedwell, Carolyn (2025) Habit, Speculative Pragmatism, and Social Transformation. Education and Culture: The Journal of the John Dewey Society. (In Press)

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Abstract

The logics of habit are at the heart of a range of complex developments which are reshaping the nature of contemporary social and (im)material life. This paper brings together pragmatist and continental philosophies, social and cultural theories, and affect studies to explore the relationship between habit and processes of social transformation. Unfolding a speculative pragmatism of habit fit to navigate the uncertainties of the present, I argue that approaching social change ‘in a minor key’ requires that we understand habits not simply as mindless forms of repetition that reproduce the status quo, but rather as moving assemblages that enable new affective, material, and political capacities and collectives to emerge.