For Pierre Bourdieu, the concept of habitus bridges the divide between objectivism and subjectivism by providing a sense of underlying context through which people can act as independent agents while still adhering to the larger structure.

As Bourdieu posits, there is a fundamental gap between objectivism and subjectivism. While the objective position tends to understand society as a structured reality in and of itself, the subjectivist viewpoint views people as independent agents capable of making choices and therein undermines that larger sense of structure.

Bourdieu's understanding of habitus provides a means of navigating this division. Essentially, it seems like the concept of habitus can be understood in terms of context: when discussing various groups (people of the same social class, for example), you are essentially discussing a sense of similar (if not necessarily identical) experiences and values that extend across the group. In this sense, Bourdieu can understand human beings as simultaneously free agents capable of choice and also as actors within the social structure. After all, even within a subjective viewpoint of society, people's experiences and decisions would have been shaped by this larger sense of context, and in this sense, they can still be understood from inside the social structure.