Authenticated social capital: conceptualising power, resistance and well-being in the lives of transgender older adults

Abstract

Trans people experience social marginalisation, stigmatisation and violent oppression in US society and worldwide. Given the importance of social capital for wellbeing, this study sought to illuminate the ways in which trans people build social capital throughout their lives and to use this knowledge to promote new and helpful ways of thinking about social capital concerning the human life course in the 21st century. We conducted a secondary interpretive content analysis of 86 in-depth interviews with trans older adults generated as part of the arts project To Survive on This Shore. Trans older adults confront social marginalisation and stigmatisation by generating what we call authenticated social capital, a form of social capital built by re-negotiating social constraints and developing alternative social networks and supports that affirm identity and foster authenticity and wellbeing. These networks and supports are often embedded in social worlds created by trans people that facilitate gender affirmation and social activism through community organising. The concept of authenticated social capital integrates and expands upon paradigmatic understandings of social capital. In addition to enhancing theorising and interventions aimed at improving the lives of trans people, the approach may be well suited to conceptualising the life experiences and liberation of other oppressed groups.