Poverty: Talk, Identity, and Action

Abstract

This is a study of poverty as it is constructed in the talk of 11 guests who regularly eat at a soup kitchen in upstate New York. Framed within the perspective that talk constitutes identity and action, this study offers a critical interpretation of how the soup kitchen guests present themselves and the other impoverished guests of the kitchen. The essay also evaluates their characterizations in terms of how they may reflect or influence society's views and policies on poverty. The interpretation and evaluation are guided by the concept "relevancy in meaning" as it is being developed in interpretive audience studies.

Navigating the stigmatised identities of poverty in austere times: Resisting and responding to narratives of personal failure

“…Thus, many participants went to considerable lengths to highlight their own work histories, volunteering, and roles as parents or carers, in ways that demonstrate their social worth (Broughton, 2003). It is exactly these behaviours that are viewed as virtues within mainstream society and this suggests that participants very much shared the values of ‘hard work’ and ‘responsibility’ characteristic of mainstream society (Cohen, 1987). Ultimately, distancing could be achieved if their situation was viewed as temporary, a transient phase rather than a more permanent lifestyle choice that may be attributed to the ‘undeserving’ poor (see also Broughton, 2003; Cohen, 1987):I just try to live my life the best way I can.…”

“…It is exactly these behaviours that are viewed as virtues within mainstream society and this suggests that participants very much shared the values of ‘hard work’ and ‘responsibility’ characteristic of mainstream society (Cohen, 1987). Ultimately, distancing could be achieved if their situation was viewed as temporary, a transient phase rather than a more permanent lifestyle choice that may be attributed to the ‘undeserving’ poor (see also Broughton, 2003; Cohen, 1987):I just try to live my life the best way I can. Round where I am, I am probably only one of two, of most of the people living there who is working, everybody seems to be sat about gassing really, looking at everyone is, you know drinking and smoking, arguing.…”

“…One significant consequence, as Dean and Taylor-Gooby (1992: 117) conclude in their study of social security claimants, is the erosion of solidarity amongst social security recipients, an observation that appears equally applicable amongst participants in this study arising from the potentially injurious consequences of association. This means as Cohen’s (1987: 88) study concludes, that through ‘formally emphasizing their character in contrast to poor people[’s]’, participants maintained ‘their difference from the “other”, but they also isolate themselves from a community of people with similar needs’. Through rejecting the applications of these pejorative labels to their own lives, participants were forced to place themselves in opposition to others experiencing similar deprivations which often only served to further marginalise our participants.…”

Profaning the Past to Salvage the Present: The Symbolically Reconstructed Pasts of Homeless Shelter Residents

“…The homeless are among the most stigmatized groups in the United States (Phelan et al ), and individuals contend with this label by engaging in identity work and strategies of stigma management to “salvage the self” (Rayburn and Guittar ; Snow and Anderson , ; Roschelle and Kaufman ; see also Cohen ). While not explicitly engaging Mead or Goffman, there are hints of temporality in this work.…”

The Study of Identity As Cultural, Institutional, Organizational, and Personal Narratives: Theoretical and Empirical Integrations

“…Women relying on welfare (Seccombe, James, and Battle Walters 1998; Hancock 2004), mothers who are teens (Kirkman et al. 2001), and people who eat at soup kitchens (Cohen 1997) talk passionately about how unknown others automatically respond to them as individual instances of morally deficient narrative characters.…”