Modifying the American Dream
An Ethnography of Foreclosure Prevention in the Great Recession
Datos Bibliográficos
| ID | 3914013 |
|---|---|
| Autores | Anna Jefferson (Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas), Camila Pérez (0000-0003-3751-9044, Film Independent) |
| Año | 2023 |
| Páginas | 278 |
| Fecha de publicación | 2023-03-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Sí |
| Open Access | Sí |
| Tipo | ARTICLE |
| Revista | Papeles del CEIC (JOURNAL) |
| Identificadores de la revista | ISSN: 1695-6494 • E-ISSN: 1695-6494 |
| Editorial | UPV/EHU Press (PUBLISHER • ES) |
| DOI | 10.1387/pceic.23802 |
| OpenAlex | W4361285637 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Referencias citadas | 28 |
The United States' housing crisis and Great Recession of 2007-2009 ignited personal, political, and cultural reckoning with central facets of American identity, namely what it means to be middle class. Homeownership is historically a key symbol of having achieved the "American Dream" and entering an idealized middle class. As a cultural phenomenon, foreclosure is therefore a loaded symbol both of individual downward mobility and threats to a national myth of the American Dream. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Michigan in 2009-2011, this paper argues that the housing crisis created a liminal class status of "facing foreclosure". From that vantage point, homeowners facing foreclosure and housing counselors assisting them critically re-examined the meanings of middle classness. The fieldwork reveals that they relied on material, moral, and political demands to obtain mortgage modifications to reassert their status as middle-class subjects. When these efforts failed, they turned to systemic critiques rather than the individualized blame the American Dream would predict
Blame · Criminology · Development economics · Dream · Economics · Ethnography · Foreclosure · Keynesian economics · Liminality · Middle class · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Recession · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
The way we never were
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit
Everything In Its Place
To repay or not to repay
Deflating the Dream
There's a Difference—I Own This”
National and Regional Cultural Values in the United States
Transnationalism, Nationalism, Citizenship, and Property
The Pursuit of (Past) Happiness? Middle-class Indebtedness and American Financialisation
The end of the line
Black on the block
When Time Freezes
Automobile Workers and the American Dream
(Dis)locating the Middle Class
Driving after Class
Automobile Workers and the American Dream
Indebted
Homeownership in Israel
Empowerment Money
Anthropologists View American Culture
Property without Prosperity
Fleeting Dreams and Flowing Goods
Seeing Possible Futures
This Land is My Land
Petitioning a giant
This Is History
The Spirit of Capitalism and the Boundaries of Citizenship in Post-Wall Germany
Not what it used to be
| Velocidad de citación | historical |
|---|---|
| Altamente citado | No |