Abstract
We investigate how material poverty functions as a cultural space, specifically addressing when it becomes a strategy, that is, when an individual with cultural and social capital adopts a life of low income in order to form other social identities. We examine two groups that use low income to further other goals but differ in their temporal lens: (1) "transitional bourgeoisie," graduate students and artists who frame their economic deprivation as a temporary means to prospective identities, such as a professorship or success in art; (2) "embedded activists," committed adults rooted in political and religious organizations who see low income as a permanent strategy to bolster their anti-consumerist desires. Relying on 37 in-depth interviews with informants we ask, how do people in strategic poverty construct satisfying lives? What cultural tools and skill-sets do informants draw upon to negotiate their economic circumstances and middle-class backgrounds?
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 86-109 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | Journal of Consumer Culture |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 16 2015 |
Funding
Data collection and transcriptions of the interviews was made possible through a grant from the Searle Fund.
Keywords
- Consumption
- cultural capital
- culture
- poverty
- social capital
- strategy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business and International Management
- Social Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Sociology and Political Science
- Economics and Econometrics
- Marketing