Abstract
In this study, we explore the contours of hope among U.S. mothers in poverty who no longer have full access to state-provided welfare benefits. Using qualitative interviews with a panel of mothers over a two-year period (n = 33 and 23), we document that, even as they demonstrate and draw on a great deal of aspirational capital, defined as the capacity to hope despite structural inequalities and often without the means to realize such hopes, the mothers’ conceptualizations of hope are constrained discursively. Our analysis knits together a strengths-based community cultural wealth framework and an institutional ethnography-informed examination of the ways the women work with the discourses available to them to envision their futures. We find that, despite the very challenging material conditions with which they cope, these mothers demonstrate strong aspirational capital, informed by resistant and navigational capital and curtailed by discourses related to gender and neoliberalism. Implications of the analysis include the identification of strengths in a population typically denigrated culturally and politically, the application of the community cultural wealth framework to social class, and a deeper understanding of hope for mothers in poverty and the ways gender and neoliberalism structure their lives.
Presenters
Jill WeigtProfessor, Social Sciences Program, California State University San Marcos, California, United States Colleen Janey
Student, BA - Social Sciences, California State University San Marcos, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Poverty, Neoliberalism, Gender, Community Cultural Wealth, Discourse, Qualitative Research
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