Resources for health in Uganda: Bourdieu's concepts of capital and habitus

Abstract

Based on long‐term fieldwork in rural Eastern Uganda, this paper explores the use of Bourdieu's concepts of capital and habitus to analyse local understandings of resources and strategies for health. In this local Ugandan context health cannot be taken for granted, but requires persistent effort. In local terms, health is broadly described as having a ‘good life’ and this is experienced as a social achievement conditioned by access to a variety of human and material resources. Wealth, unity with others, learnedness, ‘smartness’, and bodily strength are described by local people as key resources for a ‘good life’. Bourdieu's concepts of economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital are applied in discussing the dynamics of how these local resources are converted into different forms of capital in the quest for health. It is argued that in order to more fully analyse how people think about, and strive for, health, a concept of bodily capital may be a useful addition to Bourdieu's original forms of capital.