Turning Adversity into a Bottle of Wine: Black Women Wine Industry Entrepreneurs and Capital

Abstract

This study explores how and why black women entrepreneurs convert their available and accessible economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital in the South African wine industry. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice as a theoretical framework, particularly the concept of capital, this study frames such conversion as a process of transforming one capital form to another. Relying on a qualitative approach, and using in-depth semi-structured interviews, this study delved into the lived experiences of nine black women wine industry entrepreneurs in South Africa. Data were supplemented with observations and associated secondary materials and were inductively analysed using the constant comparative technique. The study uncovers that the capital conversion process is habitual, that is a natural undertaking, and accentuates the overlapping and convertibility essences of various capital forms. Moreover, it reveals that black women wine industry entrepreneurs may not give utmost preponderance to economic capital, and that economic capital conversion forms a part of a broader capital conversion process. This study shows that black women entrepreneurs should not be discouraged from starting viable enterprises simply because of insufficient funds (economic capital). Rather, they should leverage on other different non-economic capital forms to counteract the lack of money. The value of this study bears on the emphasis that both the value and conversion rates of each species of capital may differ, and for black women entrepreneurs particularly in the wine industry, economic capital may not be accorded utmost preponderance.