The wish to live in areas with ‘people like us’: metropolitan habitus, habitual urbanity and the visibility of urban-rural differences in South Bavaria, Germany.

In contemporary urban research, classical notions of differences in mentality between the urban and rural population as known since the writings of Cicero have once again become en vogue. The concept of ‘metropolitan habitus’, elaborated by British Sociologist Tim Butler, is the most influential revival of mental differentiation in this context. With the help of the concept of metropolitan habitus, Butler is able to differentiate between distinct gentrified neighbourhoods in London. The paper takes up this discussion of urban attitudes and lifestyles and presents a slightly different concept of habitual urbanity and residential capital, derived from the work of Pierre Bourdieu. The main aim of these theoretical ideas is the investigation of urban-rural differences and differences within rural areas in relation to urbanity, which is not possible with Butler's urban-focused concept. Therefore, the paper defines urbanity as the contingency of a city, which means its broad range of possible coincidences due to social density. Urbanity manifests itself in the greater scope of action of its inhabitants. Habitual urbanity and residential capital are instrumental in helping people to deal with the broad range of possibilities that urban life offers. After introducing this theoretical conceptualisation, the paper presents empirical results of a visual study concerning urban-rural differences carried out in South Bavaria using the reflexive photography method. The study reveals indications that habitual differences between urbanites and the rural population in terms of urbanity and contingency still exist. These seem to be just a matter of how to respond to the challenges of strangeness and otherness. The study thus demonstrates the empirical potential of the concept of habitual urbanity and residential capital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]