The Capitals of Ukay-Ukay Through The Lens of Pierre Bourdieu’s Forms and Theories of Capital

• Main Authors: Cervantes, Rona Ysabella Y., Cruz, Altea Eunice G., Fidel, Ara Grace S., Lazarte, Lorenzo Noel N.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: thrifting; online shopping; thrift selling; Bourdieu's Capitals; Ukay-ukay; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/conf_shsrescon/2022/paper_mps/12
• Institution: De La Salle University

As the pandemic continues to send small businesses to a corner, thrift shop owners have resulted in keeping and running their businesses online. This research studied the environment of online ukay-ukay—Philippine thrift shopping—under the lens of Pierre Bourdieu's Forms and Theories of Capital, where the concept of the word "capital" means far beyond its definition in economics and entrepreneurship. Divided into five capitals (economic, cultural, emotional, social, symbolic), the study aimed to state the general affairs of the online ukay-ukay environment on Instagram and see whether Bourdieu's capitals can be found present in them through five case studies. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews as the main source of data gathering for five case studies. The respondents are only eligible for an interview if their main platform of selling is on social media app Instagram and if they have 2 000 followers minimum. Though the results show diverse and contrasting answers, to a degree, the Theory of Capital also resided in these online thrift shops; however, they differed mostly in economic and symbolic capital, as opposed to the researchers' speculations of emotional capital. In the day and age of technology and information, an inquisition into digital landscapes should be truthful and endeavored with purpose; though physical ukay-ukay stores have contributed to contemporary Philippine culture as seen in various cultural and indigenous studies, this space too deserves a venture of itself for its own endowment to real-time history and Philippine society. Also, with fast fashion being one of earth’s deadliest killers (Bick, Halsey, & Ekenga., 2018), contributing tonnes to landfills, the secondhand shopping and ukay-ukay tradition is one of the best ways to help lessen this.