Debt as Negative Capital: Patterns of Capital Conversion in the Lives of the Poor

We examine how people living in poverty attempt to escape indebtedness by converting various forms of capital in a Bourdieusian sense. Guided by Pierre Bourdieu’s framework, we treat debt as a form of negative economic capital and analyse qualitative interview data on individuals’ struggles with debt. Our research question is: Which capital conversion strategies do low-income individuals employ to manage or escape debt, and what symbolic or emotional barriers do they encounter? We draw on 216 in-depth interviews with residents in long-term poverty. Using a relational, field-based analytic frame, we identify four main conversion patterns: (1) social capital → economic capital (borrowing from kin or friends), (2) cultural capital → economic capital (using bureaucratic knowledge or skills to gain benefits), (3) economic capital → economic capital (using savings or assets to pay debts), and (4) social/cultural capital → institutional capital → economic capital (leveraging networks or knowledge to access formal debt relief). We find these strategies are often temporary and fraught with obstacles. Shame and stigma function as forms of symbolic violence that can block people from mobilising help, while bureaucratic complexity and resource scarcity limit the effectiveness of their efforts. Our findings deepen the understanding of how negative capital (debt) constrains agency under structural poverty and show that converting social or cultural capital into economic relief is rarely straightforward. This study contributes to Bourdieusian poverty scholarship by highlighting hysteresis effects and inter-field struggles that perpetuate indebtedness, and it suggests that anti-poverty interventions must recognise these complex conversion barriers.