Habitus e professioni legali. L'avvocatura in Terra di Lavoro tra Otto e Novecento

The aim of this paper is to examine the dynamics of professional practice of lawyers in Terra di Lavoro between nineteenth end early twentieth centuries. The topic is analysed within concept of “habitus”, introduced by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, nowadays firmed grounded in a wide body of social research and across a range of social issues. According Bourdieu’s theory, “habitus” represents a pattern of socialized norms or tendencies that guide thinking and behavior and it provides to explain how every classes distinguish themselves in society. Following on this perspective, the article firstly analyzes lawyers’ familiar relationships, systems of education, judgments, values and self-representations. Secondly, it focus on their contribution to Italian process of State-building after the national unification. Exploiting their various competences and their versatile mindset, legal practitioners become the ‘backbone’ of Terra di Lavoro ruling class. As producers, interpreters and mediators of the law, lawyers performed a key role in implementation of new unified State values in local context, by guaranteeing legality and governability in their region.