Abstract
Amidst a global economic shifts – rising economic nationalism, coupled with the dramatically increasing within-country inequality – large groups of people have convened online to share tips, tricks, and hacks about what is typically called “frugal living”. (“Frugality” itself is used as a code word for “poverty”). Ranging from several hundred to a quarter million members, forums are for sharing information about how people and communities manage being poor: discussions range from meal planning, to reusing clothing, to budgeting, to safety advice when one is homeless and living in a car. Yet, in most of these spaces there is also a universal, explicit, prohibition on “talking politics”. Groups groups are designed entirely to address the immediate needs of what it means to handle life with less on an individual level; social origins of poverty are purposefully set aside so that membership may focus on coping with its consequences. Implicitly, they create and define a discourse about what poverty is, whose responsibility it is, and what it means. Using content analysis and building on results of pilot data analysis, this project inquires along three trajectories: first it explores how the norms of frugality shape everyday financial or coping decisions among group members, and how social and emotional dynamics influence people’s sense of choice under scarcity; second, it seeks to understand how such spaces build agency, solidarity, hope, and meaning in the face of that which is not explicitly discussed; third, it considers what this all means for political understanding of poverty.
Presenters
Meghan KallmanAssociate Professor, School for Global Inclusion and Social Development, UMass Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Vectors of Society and Culture
KEYWORDS
Frugality, Poverty, Online Spaces, Discourse
