From ‘having’ to ‘being’: self‐worth and the current crisis of American society

2019/06/01 by Michèle Lamont · 20 citations
Social Sciences · Health Professions · #Youth Education and Societal Dynamics #Homelessness and Social Issues #Critical Race Theory in Education

paper · doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12667

Abstract

With growing inequality, the American dream is becoming less effective as a collective myth. With its focus on material success, competition and self-reliance, the intensified diffusion of neoliberal scripts of the self is leading the upper-middle class toward a mental health crisis while the working class and low-income groups do not have the resources needed to live the dream. African Americans, Latinos and undocumented immigrants, who are presumed to lack self-reliance, face more rigid boundaries. One possible way forward is broadening cultural membership by promoting new narratives of hope centered on a plurality of criteria of worth, 'ordinary universalism' and destigmatizing stigmatized groups.

Citations

• Is There a Trade-off between Multiculturalism and Socio-Political Integration? Policy Regimes and Immigrant Incorporation in Comparative Perspective
• Who are the “Illegals”? The Social Construction of Illegality in the United States
• Possible selves.

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