Bourdieu's Theory Of Capital Research Articles

Struggling with capital: Recovery after severe traumatic brain injury among working-age individuals in Denmark.

This study uses capital theory to investigate survivors' investments in their bodies and the resources they accumulate during their rehabilitation trajectory, and how these factors impact their perception of recovery from their impairments. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 patients of working age and their relatives, with audio recordings transcribed verbatim. Data analysis utilized an abductive approach informed by Bourdieu's capital theory. During the initial phases of rehabilitation (acute and subacute), survivors invest in their physical bodies and acquire physical capital. However, they encounter a range of complex barriers when attempting to convert this capital into the resources necessary for re-entering the workforce or pursuing education. These difficulties are linked to the lack of specialized community services in the later phases of their rehabilitation trajectory. Present-day Danish healthcare rehabilitation focuses on restoring physical function and recovering physical capital. However, comprehensive rehabilitation to enhance mental and cognitive abilities and increase levels of emotional capital, which is crucial for working-age individuals, is inadequately addressed within community services. This results in unequal treatment and care, contradicting the stated goal of equality in the Danish healthcare system. This study incorporated the perspectives of 20 individuals who have survived severe traumatic brain injury, as well as their relatives, to gain insights into their experiences throughout the rehabilitation process, the resources they have accumulated and how these factors contribute to their sense of recovery.

Testing conditionality with Bourdieu's capital theory: How economic, social, and embodied cultural capital are associated with diet and physical activity in the Netherlands

Although Bourdieu's capital theory emphasized that economic, social, and embodied cultural capital interact to shape health behavior, existing empirical research mainly considered separate associations of the three forms of capital. Our aim was to investigate if and how economic, social, and embodied cultural capital are conditional on each other in their associations with adults' diet and physical activity.Cross-sectional, self-reported data from the 2014 GLOBE survey of 2812 adults aged between 25 and 75 years residing in Eindhoven, the Netherlands were used. Step-wise multiple logistic regression models included economic, social, and embodied cultural capital and adjustment for potential confounders. The models estimated odds ratios of main effects and two-way interactions of the forms of capital with fruit consumption, vegetable consumption, sports participation, and leisure time walking or cycling.In the main effects models, embodied cultural capital was consistently positively associated with all outcomes. Social capital was positively associated with sports participation, fruit consumption, and vegetable consumption, and economic capital was positively associated with sports participation and vegetable consumption. In the two-way interaction models, having specific higher levels of both economic and social capital strengthened their positive association with sports participation. No other combinations of capital were conditional on each other.Economic and social capital were conditional on each other in their association with sports participation, so interventions that provide both economic and social support may be especially effective for increasing this type of physical activity. As its association was strong with all outcomes but not conditional on other forms of capital, embodied cultural capital may operate distinctly from economic and social resources. Policy that takes differences in embodied cultural capital into account or changes to the environment that dampen the importance of embodied cultural resources for health behavior may help improve both diet and physical activity.

Respected physician in Syria, unemployed refugee in the Netherlands: An analysis of the integration of Syrian refugees with a medical degree in the Dutch medical field

Refugees in the Netherlands are expected to integrate in society and find employment. Despite years of education, Syrian refugees who graduated in medicine (SRGMs') struggle to enter the Dutch medical field. To ensure patient safety, physicians with a medical degree obtained outside Europe are obliged to finish an ‘assessment procedure’ (AP) and might be forced to redo clinical internships, before being allowed to practice medicine. In this research, SRGMs' experiences were analysed using Bourdieu's capital theory. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 SRGMs. In Syria, they acquired much capital as physicians, in the shape of financial means (economic capital), connections (social capital), medical degrees and skills (cultural capital), and status (symbolic capital). Their medical skills often provide the only capital that remains when arriving in the Netherlands, but it loses value as they have to prove their competence first in the AP. This is a long and arduous process. The mean duration, for those who had yet finished the AP, from arrival to employment was 4.5 years (n = 5, range 2.7–5.8 years). SRGMs experience difficulties in these AP years because they are forced to study from home and feel excluded from medical practice. They are unable to regain their economic, social and symbolic capital, whilst struggling to get their cultural capital acknowledged. Mentally this is challenging and when they do finish, this capital gap leaves them at a disadvantage when applying for competitive job applications. Once employed, SRGMs need time to adjust but are finally rebuilding their capital and integrating in Dutch society. Both SRGMs and Dutch society benefit when SRGMs' integration in the Dutch medical field improves. Although certain challenges for SRGMs seem inevitable, by offering a clinical internship before the assessment of SRGMs' skills, their capital acquisition might improve which would facilitate their integration.

How theory can help to understand the potential impact of food environment policies on socioeconomic inequalities in diet: an application of Bourdieu's capital theory and the scarcity theory.

Government policies that promote healthy food environments are considered promising to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in diet. Empirical evidence of effects on these inequalities, however, is relatively scarce and, with a few exceptions, tends to be inconclusive. We use two contemporary theories that help to understand socioeconomic inequalities in health and health-related behaviours (Bourdieu's capital theory and Mullainathan and Shafir's scarcity theory) to reason how policies influencing food environments may differentially impact lower and higher socioeconomic groups. In essence, these theories enable us to understand how specific elements of broader daily living conditions (e.g. social practices that lead to habitus formation, material conditions that shape experiences of scarcity) may lead to a greater benefit of certain food environment policies for the healthfulness of diets of lower or higher socioeconomic groups. We conclude that the application of theories on the mechanisms underlying socioeconomic inequalities in health can help to guide future empirical studies in testing theory-based hypotheses on differential effects of policies, and thereby enhance the development of effective policies tackling socioeconomic inequalities in dietary intakes.

The critical need for reciprocity between educational migrants and communities for continuing education and socio‐cultural capital in Laos

Reciprocity between student success and community support has emerged as a strong theme in a phenomenological case study that was conducted amongst post‐primary educational migrant students1 in Laos. Students clearly articulated their dependence upon community support and the ways in which they gave back to their communities in exchange for their continuing education. The descriptions of their experiences were indicative of hierarchical interdependence and highlighted the effects of urbanisation on educational migrants and their lifelong learning. This study draws on Bourdieu's capital theory to understand community and reciprocity as indicators of cultural and social capital. Findings revealed that building relationships between students and their communities is essential to advancing post‐primary education in Laos.

A hybrid model of competitive advantage based on Bourdieu capital theory and competitive intelligence using fuzzy Delphi and ISM-Gray DEMATEL (study of Iranian food industry)

Competitive advantage is an important issue emphasized in management and strategic planning over the past few years. This study was aimed to comprehensively evaluate competitive advantage and design and explain a hybrid model of competitive advantage based on Bourdieu capital theory and competitive intelligence using fuzzy Delphi and ISM-Gray DEMATEL in Iran Food Industry. This article applies a method to managers, with the findings indicating that the firms will not be able to achieve competitive advantage in the market unless they are formed by a high start-up capital and a high competitive intelligence and awareness on the part of the managers as to the business conditions. Such factors enable organizations to make better use of their own cultural and social capitals. Also, the optimal use of social and cultural capitals ameliorates the competitive advantages of the organizations. The authenticity and the economic values added of organizations are further enhanced by obtaining competitive advantage. Promoting organizations' credit and brand improves their economic and market value added, which, in turn augment their capitals and economic assets.