From line to life course

Trajectory thinking and the temporal sociology of poverty

Bibliographic Data

ID24020163
AuthorsSuzanne Butler (0000-0002-6925-002X, Newcastle University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-08-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00380385261462745
OpenAlexW7172503332
LanguageEN
References cited26

This article reconceptualises poverty as biography in motion , advancing a temporal-affective typology of trajectories – turbulent, stalled, and climbing – to show how structure, emotion, and agency interact over time. Drawing on life story and journalling research with 24 women in the UK, it develops a sociological grammar of motion that travels across welfare contexts. Where conventional poverty studies chart transitions or durations, the trajectory lens reveals how constraint and change acquire emotional form: turbulence as instability and fear, stalling as repetition and shame, climbing as fragile reorientation sustained through recognition and relational support. Synthesising Critical Realist and Feminist Standpoint perspectives, the paper positions emotion as causal mechanism rather than consequence, mediating between structural conditions and lived possibility. By foregrounding temporality, affect, and biography, it proposes a trajectory-sensitive sociology that bridges personal narratives and welfare regimes, shifting poverty research from the language of lines to that of lives in motion .

Agency (philosophy) · Biography · Foregrounding · Motion (physics) · Narrative · Poverty · Structure and agency · Typology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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Open DOIOpen Access