Coming Up or Coming to Grips? Upward Mobility, the American Dream, and Young Residents of Houston's Fifth Ward. Issue 2 (2nd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bryerton, Will
• Is Part Of: Sociological focus. Volume 49:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 103
• Page End: 118
• Publication Date: 2016-04-02
• Subjects: Social sciences -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2016.1107712
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-0237

Abstract

ABSTRACT: 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.