Low-Income Culture

The Strengths of the Poor

Bibliographic Data

ID2586152
AuthorsFrank Riessman (corresponding author)
Year1964
Volume26
Issue4
Pages417
Publication date1964-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Marriage and the Family (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2445 • E-ISSN: 1741-3737
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/349346
OpenAlexW2317732964
LanguageEN
Citations received5

INVARIABLY when the strengths of the are mentioned, an immediate image springs to mind. The image is that of the savage-uninhibited, enjoying nature, unfettered by the responsibilities of middle-class life. People respond to this image in what appear to be two diametrically opposed ways, both of which are harmful to a serious understanding of the meaning and significance of the positive qualities emerging from a struggle with poverty. On the one hand are the romantic supporters of the supposedly impulse-free poor. Their view is typically contaminated by pervasive anti-middle-class sentiments and invidious class comparisons calculated to enhance the qualities of the have-nots. This admiration of the is rooted, not in the struggles of the disadvantaged themselves, but rather in their removal from the disreputable elements of middle-class life-whether these be inhibitions, competitiveness, disloyalty, pretentiousness, boredom, or whatever. Those who oppose this view ridicule the positives of the poor and can see no meaning in the concept other than the noble savage interpretation. Recognizing that the are not uninhibited, do experience serious strains, and want no part of poverty, this view can only hold that an emphasis on the strengths of the is sentimental drivel and naively antimiddle-class

Admiration · Aesthetics · Boredom · Disadvantaged · Interpretation (philosophy · Meaning (existential · Middle class · Political science · Poverty · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub