Networks of Social Support to Manage Poverty: More Changeable than Durable

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the durability and changeability of networks of social support to manage poverty from a life-course perspective. Drawing on interviews with members of 20 families, the authors explore networks’ origins and changes, the sources of support, and types of supports exchanged. The authors find networks to manage poverty are more likely to be in flux than durable. Intersecting transitions over life courses and shifting availability of supports from community and the welfare state require family members to be open to change in support relations. The management of poverty is multifaceted and challenged by the malleability of support networks.

KEYWORDS:

• Change
• family
• life course
• poverty
• social support networks

Notes

1. We define fictive kin as conceptualized by Carol Stack (1974). People who are not blood relatives can “become” kin by what they do, by exchanging goods and services such as child care.

2. In the remainder of this article, we assume this definition of families and family members unless we specifically mention blood or fictive relations.

3. Pseudonyms are used in the presentation of findings to protect participants’ anonymity and preserve confidentiality.