Accumulating Disadvantages, Multiplying Inequalities: Biographies of Poverty in Mexico City. Issue 2 (4th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bayón, María Cristina
• Is Part Of: Journal of poverty. Volume 21:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 97
• Page End: 119
• Publication Date: 2017-03-04
• Subjects: Accumulation of disadvantages -- biographical experiences -- inequalities -- opportunity structures -- poverty -- poverty discourse -- social fragmentation; Poverty -- United States -- Periodicals; Poor -- United States -- Periodicals; Public welfare -- United States -- Periodicals; 362.05
• DOI: 10.1080/10875549.2016.1141385
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1087-5549

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Emphasizing poverty as dynamic, multidimensional, and socially constructed, and based on in-depth interviews, this article analyzes the biographical experiences of residents of a highly deprived area in the periphery of México City. Departing from the family of origin and childhood, it goes through school, work, family, and migration experiences exploring processes leading to cumulative disadvantages during the life course, as well as tensions between opportunities and expectations, experiences, and discourses. Although allowing a better understanding of poverty as a process, a biographical approach also provides empirical evidences for dismantling public discourses that criminalize and blame the poor for their deprivations.