Neither passive nor powerless: reframing economic vulnerability via resilient pathways

ABSTRACT

Resilience, as an emerging construct within the contemporary field of consumer vulnerability, has received limited empirical attention within the context of economic adversity. This paper examines how low-income women strive to reframe their relationship to the market via resilient pathways. It establishes how through active agency, self-care practices and relational coping, women maximise care of self and care of others with limited economic means. Comprised of multidimensional coping resources for positive adaptation, resilient pathways offer vulnerable consumers distinct trajectories to well-being and overturn deficit-focused views about how those facing chronic economic disadvantage, (re)assert themselves in vulnerable consumption contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• coping resources
• economic vulnerability
• low-income women

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the participating women for sharing their experiences and the reviewers for their insightful comments throughout the development of this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Notes on contributors

Martina Hutton

Martina Hutton is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Winchester. Her research explores the intersection of consumer stress, poverty and resilient coping efforts from a gendered standpoint. As a feminist participatory researcher, she is particularly interested in active engagement with diverse groups of women experiencing poverty. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Marketing Management.