Understanding risk-taking behaviours through the practice-oriented risk habitus and multiple-capital model (P-HAC): a case study of disaster-affected farmers

There is a scant literature discussing how risk-taking behaviour is influenced by the interplay of agency and social structures. This article seeks to fill this void by utilising Bourdieu's theory of practice to develop the Practice-Oriented Risk Habitus and Multiple-Capital Model (P-HAC) to account for Vietnamese farmers' risk-taking practice. Risk habitus is the durable organising principles of risk-relating practice. Drawing on a qualitative case study of a disaster-prone rural commune in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, we found that farmers have developed a risk habitus drawing on multiple capitals that are suitable to their agricultural production. Particularly, natural, built and cultural capitals combined to restructure farmers' risk perception, economic capital provided farmers with a compelling incentive to take risk, while social capital can act as a buffer against risk. Yet, capitals are not always positive. Social and cultural capital could impose negative community habitus on individual farmers' risk-taking practice.