Coming Up or Coming to Grips? Upward Mobility, the American Dream, and Young Residents of Houston's Fifth Ward

Bibliographic Data

ID5848646
AuthorsWill Bryerton (Louisiana State University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume49
Issue2
Pages103-118
Publication date2016-02-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Focus (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0237 • E-ISSN: 2162-1128
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00380237.2016.1107712
OpenAlexW2345605447
LanguageEN
References cited32

The ethos of the American Dream is such that an individual's efforts, abilities, and responsible choices can spur a more prosperous economic future. For the urban poor, this ethos can be elusive. If rejected, it may vindicate the defeatism and fatalism alleged by cultural deficiency frameworks. If accepted, it may corroborate claims that social isolation leaves the poor unaware of the extent of the barriers to upward mobility. Through participant observation and ethnographic fieldwork with young residents of a high-poverty urban community, I probe the participants' assessments of the ambiguities and contradictions of the American Dream. Results indicate that the participants' faith in meritocratic individualism in prescriptive terms related to future success as well as in remedial terms in order to reconcile self-blame and internalized failure. I interpret these results in light of prevailing frameworks on the cultural contexts of urban poverty

Blame · Ethos · Meritocracy · Nonconformist · Social mobility · Community Health and Development · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

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