How are formulaic narrative structures for life stories and conventional discourses about society incorporated, adapted, and changed during a time of personal and national difficulties? To answer this question, Dr. Claudia Strauss (Pitzer College) will undertake longitudinal research among unemployed American workers to see if their sociopolitical outlooks and ways of narrating their life shift as a result of either continued unemployment or subsequent re-employment. Qualitative research among the jobless in the United States has typically consisted of community studies following a plant closing. Today, however, plant closings are less common as a cause of unemployment. Furthermore, while unemployment benefits took care of the immediate needs of most of the jobless in the past, around half of currently jobless Americans have exhausted their unemployment benefits and are experiencing high levels of financial hardship. American workers once interpreted their own and others' economic situations through the belief that economic opportunities are readily available, so individuals are responsible for their economic fate. This project asks to what extent is that still the case?
The researcher will follow displaced workers in Southern California for a period of two years and use a mix of qualitative research methods to collect narratives for analysis. She will conduct participant-observation in networking groups for the jobless. She will complete in-depth interviews with 60 jobless workers, selected to represent a variety of socioeconomic levels and ethnic backgrounds, including immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and South America, as well as native born Americans. She will stay in contact with her interviewees over the course of the study and re-interview them at its conclusion. The data collected will be analyzed to determine what interpretive frameworks workers are using to understand the current economy and their position in it. The researcher will be looking for change and variability in formulaic ways of talking about job situations, possibly reflecting more inchoate understandings that reflect current realities.
Findings from this research will contribute to greater understanding of how personal narratives and sociopolitical opinions are constructed from formulaic elements. The research will also help to understand coping strategies of the unemployed and the kinds of conventional narratives that may give them practical help, as well as the potential for exacerbating social tensions. In addition, funding this research provides undergraduate and graduate student research training.
