The Unfreedom of Being Other: Canadian Lone Mothers' Experiences of Poverty and 'Life on the Cheque'

• Published in: Sociology (Oxford) Vol. 39; no. 4; pp. 643 - 660
• Main Author: Power, Elaine M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.10.2005; Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Attention; Checks; Children; Consumer society; Consumerism; Consumers; Criticism; Economic liberalism; Families; Freedom; Governmentality; Labor market; Liberalism; Mothers; Neoliberalism; One-parent families; Poverty; Public assistance programs; Single Mothers; Single parents; Social conditions & trends; Social work; Sociology; Studies; Theory; Unfreedom; Welfare; Welfare Dependency; Welfare Recipients; Canada; lone mothers; neo-liberalism; governmentality; welfare; consumer society
• ISSN: 0038-0385; 1469-8684
• DOI: 10.1177/0038038505056023

This article theorizes the experiences of lone mothers living on welfare in contemporary consumer society using a governmentality framework, with particular attention to liberalism's practices of unfreedom. Analysis suggests two main ways in which lone mothers were constructed and disciplined as Other: as 'welfare bums' who were not in the labour market; and as 'flawed consumers' without the financial resources to participate in consumer society. This type of study, with its attention to the 'messy actualities' of how subjects take up neo-liberal discourse, offers possibilities for the re-politicization of the Foucauldian-inspired governmentality literature by accounting for the costs of neo-liberal forms of rule, and providing insight into how it might be contested.