Shame, Anger and Hope: The Messy Relations of Charitable Help within the Welfare State

Abstract

The shame of being poor and asking for charity has been a key theme in sociological research on poverty. This article draws on ethnographic research across two charity centres in Australia to address the overemphasis on shame as the dominant feeling of being poor and trying to help. We find that hope and anger are key emotions that sit alongside shame. Service providers tried to cultivate hope for a brighter poverty-free future. Hope was important for people in poverty, but they had smaller versions of hope informed by their everyday struggle. They were also angry at hope lost. Participants co-constructed charity and their experiences of poverty as a messy problem space where difficult and hopeful emotions hang together. The article contributes to the literature by coupling ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ feelings of poverty to trace a ‘political economy of hope’ within the welfare state that nuances people’s experiences of charitable help.