Capitals and Capital Formation of Female Community Leaders in Chonburi Province through Pierre Bourdieu’s Concept of Capital

Abstract

This article is part of a research on women community leaders in Chonburi Province. The objective of the study is to examine capital and capital formation by applying the conceptual framework of Pierre Bourdieu to women's community leadership in the Thai context. Data were collected by in-depth interview with eight female community leaders. Capitals are vital to work and community leadership across the following dimensions: (1) Economic capital: Working in the civil society sector have no salary, no wages, merely meeting allowance and mileage claims. Community leaders must have their own career that sufficient to life and allow them to work for the community. (2) Cultural capital: In the form of embodied state or habitus is a very significant for leadership and can be seen through disposition or practice. For an institutionalized state, it is important in terms of providing a space to build and nurture leadership qualities but it does not guarantee the qualification. For objectified state, it has less important to community leaders. (3) Social capital: Having a social network from community level to national level, is significant. The sources of this capital are work and participation in various activities. (4) Symbolic capital: Award and dedication until people in the area think of this is natural symbolic capital. This capital is built and accumulated through a reproductive strategy in which families and educational institutions play a key role. This also entails a reconversion strategy; in that it takes time to convert. Forms and quantity of capital play a vital role in shaping one’s position and its relationship to other positions in the field. As women community leaders, the use of the attributes of being a woman, one’s manner, and adaptation has shown the symbolic violence and male domination.