{"id":1222,"date":"2017-08-01T13:19:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T18:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/?p=1222"},"modified":"2017-08-01T13:20:05","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T18:20:05","slug":"social-ties-and-poverty-an-interview-with-joan-maya-mazelis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/2017\/08\/01\/social-ties-and-poverty-an-interview-with-joan-maya-mazelis\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Ties and Poverty: An interview with Joan Maya Mazelis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sociologist\u00a0Joan Maya\u00a0Mazelis<\/a>, author of\u00a0Surviving Poverty: Creating Sustainable Ties\u00a0among the Poor<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University-Camden. Her research examines\u00a0the experiences of people in\u00a0poverty and\u00a0the role of social ties in their struggles to survive.\u00a0In her recently published\u00a0Washington Post Op-ed<\/a>\u00a0she critiques the idea that having the right mind-set can help poor people escape poverty, and discusses her research findings that poor people often blame themselves for their circumstances. As a family sociologist, I was interested in finding out more about the social ties that poor people have, or avoid, and how those ties (or lack thereof) can contribute to poverty or alleviate its effects. I was recently able to interview her about\u00a0her work:<\/p>\n

AK:\u00a0<\/strong>In your recently published book\u00a0Surviving Poverty: Creating Sustainable Ties<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>among the Poor,<\/em>\u00a0you interview people who are experiencing severe poverty.\u00a0For some of them,\u00a0a major factor in the difficulties they experience is not having family ties at all, or not having family members who are willing to help them.\u00a0Some\u00a0of your interviewees went on to form long term family-like ties with others that you call\u00a0\u201csustainable ties\u201d\u00a0after joining a poor people\u2019s organization that helped them form those ties.<\/p>\n

What do your findings tell us about the importance of family ties or other\u00a0\u201csustainable ties\u201d\u00a0and their connection to falling into and getting out of poverty?<\/p>\n

JMM:<\/strong>\u00a0Ties with others\u00a0are incredibly important for those struggling financially.\u00a0Social ties may not help people\u00a0 escape\u00a0poverty, but they can help them cope\u00a0with its worst consequences.\u00a0One of the most vital ways\u00a0social ties protect people\u00a0is\u00a0helping them\u00a0to avoid homelessness.\u00a0For people who live from one paycheck to the next, a missed paycheck\u00a0due to an illness\u00a0or other crisis\u00a0can lead to eviction.\u00a0But\u00a0people in this situation\u00a0might avoid homelessness\u00a0 if family members\u00a0can\u00a0loan\u00a0them\u00a0money for rent. And if\u00a0no one can\u00a0help with money, family members\u00a0 might\u00a0provide a place\u00a0to\u00a0stay temporarily, allowing\u00a0them\u00a0to avoid\u00a0living on the street.\u00a0Many of my research participants who didn\u2019t have family to rely on had experienced homelessness.<\/p>\n

Sometimes family ties aren\u2019t as positive as we wish they would be.\u00a0One participant, Rosa, told me about the time\u00a0she asked to shower at a cousin\u2019s house; the cousin wanted to charge her\u00a0and her daughter money\u00a0for the water they used.\u00a0Alyssa lived for a time with family members but had to turn\u00a0over\u00a0much of her wages\u00a0to them to do so.<\/p>\n

But social\u00a0ties\u00a0with people who aren\u2019t family\u00a0can easily dissolve, especially given the pressure that extreme poverty places on them.\u00a0Many participants described how this had happened in the past when they relied on non-kin ties. Sustainable ties\u00a0are ties between people who aren\u2019t family, but last for a long time.\u00a0In my research, I found that the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), which brought poor people together in the fight to survive,\u00a0fostered\u00a0such\u00a0sustainable\u00a0ties between members.\u00a0Some of these ties have lasted for decades.<\/p>\n

KWRU provided housing for members who needed it, and thus filled a void for those who didn\u2019t have family to rely on.\u00a0As Pauline told me,\u00a0\u201cwhen my family didn\u2019t give me nowhere to stay\u00a0[KWRU]\u00a0did, and I need\u00a0somewhere to sleep for my kids.\u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0.\u00a0When I came here they treated me like a family, like I was part of their little family.\u201d Sustainable\u00a0 ties\u00a0people built through KWRU\u00a0made an enormous difference in members\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

AK:<\/strong>\u00a0What are some of the differences you found between poor people who were able to build\u00a0\u201csustainable ties\u201d through the organization you studied, and poor people who weren\u2019t members of that organization?<\/p>\n

JMM:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>One of the main differences is that those in the organization felt less alone. They had a real sense of community. They also felt enveloped by social support, because they weren\u2019t relying on just one tie. Most of those who weren\u2019t in the organization\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0have family to rely on, but usually just one or two kin ties. Often those kin ties created a lot of negative feelings, in which family members helped only grudgingly, or the help came with guilt, shame, and strings attached.<\/p>\n

People\u00a0usually\u00a0turned\u00a0to KWRU when they\u00a0were desperate, and therefore the people I interviewed\u00a0who weren\u2019t members of KWRU were generally\u00a0a little bit better off\u2014almost all of them had lived with family\u00a0members\u00a0as adults and many received other kinds of support from family, like free child care for their kids while they went to work or school.<\/p>\n

AK:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>When doing the research for this book, what important lessons did you learn about addressing poverty and building\u00a0\u201csustainable ties\u201d\u00a0that may be useful for other poor people\u2019s organizations, policy makers, or the average person going through tough financial times?<\/p>\n

JMM:<\/strong>\u00a0One of the key lessons is the importance of reciprocity in building ties that last.\u00a0Giving back\u2014helping other members, volunteering in the office, and attending rallies\u2014functioned like monetary dues in KWRU. This increased the number of people KWRU could help. It also made\u00a0members\u00a0feel better about getting help and\u00a0helped to foster a sense of community.\u00a0Organizations\u00a0that serve poor people\u00a0could ask\u00a0them\u00a0to do small things to invest in additional help and build ties with other clients\u00a0based on this model.<\/p>\n

Policy makers\u00a0must understand, however,\u00a0that fundamental needs have to be addressed first.\u00a0Social ties can do a lot, but they can\u2019t do everything.\u00a0We need\u00a0more income supports,\u00a0child care subsidies, and\u00a0widely\u00a0accessible affordable housing. While KWRU members\u00a0did build sustainable ties with minimal governmental support, their feelings about mutual support outside of KWRU\u00a0as well as the experiences of those I interviewed who weren\u2019t members of KWRU suggest that desperate poverty\u00a0makes it very difficult to rely on one another. Positive social policies\u00a0addressing fundamental needs\u00a0would take the pressure off; people could\u00a0be there for each other\u00a0without worrying about being completely drained.<\/p>\n

In terms of what the average person going through tough financial times\u00a0can do, it\u2019s so easy and common to want to withdraw from other people when you\u2019re struggling financially. People feel embarrassed;\u00a0they blame themselves, even when larger forces are at work, like a high unemployment rate.\u00a0I found many participants in my study had done this, and it\u00a0increased their desperation and depression.\u00a0So to people going through tough times, I would say, remember that you\u2019re not alone. And everyone needs help sometimes. Don\u2019t be afraid to look for the right community and reach out to it.<\/p>\n

Joan Maya Mazelis<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is Associate Professor of Sociology and an affiliated scholar at the\u00a0Center for Urban Research and Education<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Rutgers University-Camden<\/a>. Her book,\u00a0Surviving Poverty: Creating Sustainable Ties among the Poor<\/a>, is available from\u00a0NYU Press<\/a>. Follow her on Twitter\u00a0@JoanieMazelis<\/a>. Arielle Kuperberg<\/a>\u00a0is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Follow her on twitter at\u00a0@ATKuperberg<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sociologist\u00a0Joan Maya\u00a0Mazelis, author of\u00a0Surviving Poverty: Creating Sustainable Ties\u00a0among the Poor,\u00a0is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University-Camden. Her research examines\u00a0the experiences of people in\u00a0poverty and\u00a0the role of social ties in their struggles to survive.\u00a0In her recently published\u00a0Washington Post Op-ed\u00a0she critiques the idea that having the right mind-set can help poor people escape poverty, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38855],"tags":[29,1598,97662,70,29822,97663,371,119,9013,38830,19021,30250,38893],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-three-questions","tag-class","tag-community","tag-economic-injustice","tag-family","tag-family-policy","tag-family-poverty","tag-policy","tag-poverty","tag-social-ties","tag-socioeconomic-class","tag-socioeconomic-status","tag-socioeconomics","tag-work-family-policy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}