Among the social theorists, who went beyond positivistic sociology of Durkheim, Sorokin and Davis, Pierre Bourdieu focuses on how individuals take an action such as arranging for marriage of children. He says that their strategies are not to be seen in abstraction. They are part of the complex process of social reproduction through which power and privileges are passed on to new generation. For Bourdieu, individual's strategies are more important than rules governing society. This shifts sociologists' attention from positivism to dispositions to act, which are constructed through socialization and experiences. To theorize about strategies, he gave the concept of habitus :

…the practical mastery of a small number of implicit principles that have spawned an infinite number of practices and follow their own pattern, although they are not based on obedience to any formal rules. Hence, since these patterns emerge “spontaneously,” it is unnecessary to make them explicit or to invoke or impose any rules. Habitus is thus the product of the very structures it tends to produce. Predicated upon a “spontaneous” compliance with the established order and with the will of the guardians of that order, namely the elders, habitus is the principle that will generate the different solutions (such as the limitation of family size or the emigration or enforced celibacy of younger sons) which individuals, depending on their position in the social hierarchy, their place in the family's order of birth, their sex and so forth, can bring to the practical dilemmas created by the various systems of exigencies that are not necessarily mutually compatible.

For Bourdieu the constraints of rules surrounding every choice are infinite. The choices and practices too are infinite. It is not possible for any individual to deal with all the norms and make the choices consciously. Thus social conditions are like those of fencing and chess and decisions are like parries and moves.