The Texture of Hardship: Qualitative Sociology of Poverty, 1995–2005

Abstract

Focusing on the past decade, this review considers advances in the qualitative study of working poverty, welfare reform, patterns of family formation, neighborhood effects, class-based patterns of childhood socialization, and the growing European literature on social exclusion. We highlight the increasing importance of qualitative research embedded in large-scale quantitative studies of poverty. Within each of these areas, we suggest new directions for research that take into account the changing contours of poverty, including the increasing diversity of poor neighborhoods (reflecting the in-migration of the foreign born) and the growth of poverty in the older suburbs surrounding the city centers. The reintroduction of the language of class has been a hallmark of the past decade, drawing it closer to some of the original concerns of sociologists in the 1940s, contrasted with a nearly universal emphasis on race and ethnicity characteristic of more recent decades.

Meeting the Needs of Mothers and Families? Family Self-Sufficiency Programs and Goals of Homeownership

“…In addition, although transportation barriers are documented by existing studies related to the economic self-sufficiency of low income women (Hays, 2003;Newman & Massengill, 2006;MacDonald, 2008); existing studies fail to show the complexities of low income women and their families' realities. In each of the six women's narratives presented for this analysis, there is evidence of hardship caused by transportation issues.…”

Beyond ‘Run, Knit and Relax’: Can Health Promotion in Canada Advance the Social Determinants of Health Agenda?

“…First, after 1996 US welfare "reform" legislation dismantled decades-old guarantees of income support (Newman and Massengill 2006;Ridzi and London 2006;Seccombe 2009), social scientists used "geo-ethnography," a combination of ethnographic fieldwork with the use of geographic information systems, to generate narratives and maps of the daily activities of more than 200 families in three cities (Matthews et al 2005). A hypothetical composite map of the daily activities of a single mother with two small children reveals a day that consists of leaving home at 6:30 a.m. to drop off children at daycare and school, followed by a bus trip of more than an hour to arrive at a place of work more than five miles away by 8:30 a.m.…”

Not Getting By: Poverty Management and Homelessness in Miami

“…An important component of poverty management is the role of the state in creating bureaucratic systems and in determining who is poor, who is homeless, and who qualifies for assistance (Newman and Massengill 2006). The categorization of individuals who are homeless into specific, carefully designed subgroups is an important element of poverty management policies.…”

“…One of the most consistent and basic findings of researchers studying poverty and welfare has been the failure of low-wage employment as a strategy to escape poverty or attain self-sufficiency (Newman and Massengill 2006). Entry level jobs where persons with low educational and training credentials can gain employment are typically lowwage, part-time, and/or short-term.…”

“…A plethora of "neighborhood effects" literature examines how growing up and living in neighborhoods characterized by extreme poverty, crime, and poor educational attainment influences life outcomes and opportunities for residents (Barnes 2005;Newman and Massengill 2006;Small, Jacobs, and Massengill 2008). As poverty develops in neighborhoods, it can become entrenched for generations, with many people not able to make it out.…”