Financial Precarity Research Articles

University and the Pursuit of a ‘Career’ for Working-Class Youth in Deindustrial Rochdale

This article examines the way in which working-class young people in Rochdale, a former industrial town in the north-west of England, imagine their future transitions from college to work through qualitative research at Rochdale’s only A-Level college. It explores how students’ aspirations to attend university reflect their desire for a ‘career’ in the absence of alternative forms of work and as a symbolic marker of upward social mobility that is subsequently differentiated from other forms of work as a form of distinction, as a great deal of emphasis is placed on the moral and cultural worth of a ‘career’. In doing so, this article highlights how such perceptions are shaped by the material conditions faced by these young people, such as inequality, financial precarity, and relative poverty against the backdrop of deindustrialisation.

Risk for Financial Precarity From Hospitalization: Implications for Targeting Financial Assistance in Medicare.

High out-of-pocket costs in Medicare may leave many beneficiaries in financial precarity. Beneficiaries with modest incomes are often ineligible for Medicaid (which covers most out-of-pocket Medicare costs) and may have insufficient resources to pay an unexpected health care bill. This has prompted calls to improve financial protections, but the target population remains uncharacterized. To identify beneficiaries who would face financial precarity if exposed to the Medicare Part A hospital deductible ($1600). Cross-sectional study of the 2018 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. United States. Community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries with incomes greater than 100% to 400% or less of the federal poverty level. Nationally representative estimates of financial precarity, defined as having insufficient funds to pay the deductible, examined across 4 scenarios that considered checking and savings account balances, total liquid assets (with a reserve for future living costs), and supplemental insurance. Among 4881 beneficiaries (population weighted n = 26 619 823), 45.0% had insufficient funds in checking and savings accounts to pay the Medicare hospital deductible. Financial precarity was more prevalent among Black and Hispanic versus White beneficiaries (73.5% and 76.2% vs. 36.2%), those with less versus more than high school education (70.0% vs. 37.1%), and those with 3 or more versus 2 or fewer chronic conditions (49.2% vs. 39.1%). In defining financial precarity to include beneficiaries with insufficient liquid assets to pay the deductible while maintaining a $5000 reserve for future living expenses, 50.7% were financially precarious. Building off this definition to assume supplemental insurance covered the deductible, 39.0% remained financially precarious. Cost-sharing exposure is limited to hospitalization. Many Medicare beneficiaries with modest incomes are at risk for financial hardship from costs of a single hospital stay. National Institute on Aging.

Experiences of mental health and poverty in high-income countries during COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-aggregation

Systematic reviews have been published that explore the experiences of living in poverty, yet there are no known studies that have synthesized the findings of research exploring the experiences of mental health and wellbeing of persons living in poverty during COVID-19. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review and meta-aggregation of qualitative evidence using the method described by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) following the PRISMA guidelines. Of 8391 titles and abstracts screened, we included 23 studies in our review and meta-aggregation. In conducting our meta-aggregation, we generated three synthesized findings: 1) magnification of inequities and marginalization during COVID-19; 2) difficulty accessing resources during the lockdown; and 3) the lockdown causing changes in mental health and wellbeing. The findings of this review suggest that persons living in poverty experienced increased difficulties with mental health and well-being during COVID-19. This was largely influenced by the presence of pandemic restrictions and increasing financial precarity that resulted in rising levels of psychosocial distress. Research regarding the plight of persons living in low income is needed to inform policy and practice for future pandemics in order to decrease the vulnerability of this population. Implementing evidence-informed policies and practices that mitigate the negative psychological effects of physical distancing restrictions on persons living in poverty are needed, and these can be identified through future research efforts.

Reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage: Supermarket work in Australia during the first two years of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic

Essential workers generate and maintain basic services that populations must receive, without interruption, to sustain a healthy, functional society. When SARS-COV-2 spread around the world, mundane low-paid work in essential non-healthcare industries such as supermarkets, became high risk, makeshift and unpredictable. Drawing on recent scholarship in the sociology of work, we conducted 32 interviews to capture how supermarket workers in Australia navigated the trade-offs and moral choices entailed in performing essential roles in non-health settings during a pandemic. We found that, as key assumptions about the resilience of globalised modernity and its supporting systems were tested, supermarket workers found themselves at the centre of experiments and public debates about the effectiveness and appropriateness of different infection control measures. Compensating for a lack of preparedness by governments and corporations, they were forced to accept, and then tasked with resolving inconsistencies between the political economy of low paid work and the moral economy of social provision. Given the experiences of those who found themselves in essential roles outside healthcare, there is an urgent need to reconceptualize what ‘successful’ pandemic preparedness and response entails. Reflecting on their experiences, these workers told us that expressions of solidarity and concern, from those not sharing their position of biological and financial precarity, were of little value. Drawing on the market logics that define their employment as essential and replaceable, the workers we spoke to observed that fair renumeration for risks and better protections were the most important considerations in recasting how societies prepare for future pandemics.

Financial precarity in English local government

Financial precarity in English local government

Intersectionality of gender and age (‘gender*age’): a critical realist approach to explaining older women’s increased homelessness

ABSTRACT Older single women in Australia are increasingly experiencing homelessness. Age and gender seem inherently related to single older women’s housing crises, but no attempt has been made to account for the causes of their homelessness through an intersectional lens. This article develops a complex and contingent causal explanation of the structures and mechanisms implicated in growing homelessness for this group. We demonstrate an original use of critical realist-informed intersectional analysis which is characterized by stratified social ontology and emergence. We theoretically reframe existing literature to demonstrate how the intersectional causal powers of gender and age (‘gender*age’) discrimination and conventional life course experiences intersect to generate financial precarity for older women. Our causal model explains how economic insecurity, structural and individual contexts, and crisis events interact, challenging older women’s housing security and precipitating first-time homelessness later in life.

Im/mobility as a form of gender-based violence: the case of transnationally abandoned wives in India

Transnational marriage abandonment (TMA) of women is a growing form of violence reported across India and South Asia. The spouse, most commonly a husband, lives and works in a foreign country and exploits the advantages derived from his citizenship or visa status to exercise coercion and control over the immigrating wife. TMA takes different forms, including when a woman is left behind with the in-laws while waiting for the husband to provide visa sponsorship for her migration. Such women are vulnerable to financial precarity, isolation and domestic violence from in-laws, may be dispossessed from their marital home and served with ex parte divorces. Drawing on life-history interviews with 35 ‘never-migrant’ women conducted between 2013 and 2016, and subsequent policy and legal developments in India and the UK, this article seeks to unpack the gendered dimensions of im/mobility within TMA. Women’s immobilisation results from state migration policies, legal obstacles, patriarchal socio-cultural norms and purposive actions by husbands and their families to perpetually defer visa sponsorship and extract labour and/or money from women. Our findings indicate that immobilisation is a key facet of violence against women and legal responses to TMA must utilise a gender-based violence framework that can incorporate immobilised ‘never-migrant’ women.

Funding the Artistic Future: Diversifying Support for Sustainable Artistic Impact Through Program Evaluation

This paper presents a strategic impact and assessment approach—the Rubin-Imbens potential outcomes framework—to help identify the causal effects of initiatives for arts and culture organizations, which is increasingly required by the public and stakeholders in an era of financial precarity and digitization. This framework not only strengthens the argument for diversified arts funding, but also equips organizations with the tools necessary for developing sustainable business models. After embedding the proposal in the context of prior literature, I provide some practical guidance that organizations can use to achieve operational sustainability without compromising their artistic missions. The adoption of the Rubin-Imbens framework in arts management has the potential to produce more rigorous impact assessments that ultimately lead to improved outcomes and funding opportunities.

‘The Yoga Police Are Real’

The development of modern yoga has inevitably involved the development of diverse forms of institutionalized authority. Recent years have seen increasing criticism by yoga teachers of Yoga Alliance and similar, more localized bodies that accredit the teaching of contemporary yoga in national and transnational contexts. That criticism involves demands for both accountability and individual freedom. Put simply, while some demand that yoga institutions hold their members to account for ethical transgressions, others are equally determined to prevent this power being held by any specific institution. As older systems of patriarchal, institutionalized authority within yoga are breaking down, and financial precarity increases, the emerging calls to professionalize or regulate yoga teaching from multiple quarters are increasingly incompatible with a widespread distrust of formal institutionalization. This article uses a series of case studies detailing attempts to reform yoga teaching in the US and the UK. These examples provide illuminate a fast-evolving situation that is key to defining and controlling the future of transnational yoga in localized practice. I ask: what can we learn from these encounters about the nature of authority and its relationship to vernacular knowledge? How do national contexts shape transnational concerns? And how might contemporary yoga evolve to reconcile the twin issues of student safety and freedom of expression?

Women as carriers of the ‘weaving legacy’: Shifting labour and changing gender relations in marriage

The study highlights how women bear the responsibility of perpetuating the cultural identity of the weaving community due to gendered norms around endogamous marriage, the dual burden that women bear within family enterprises, and the exit of male weavers in pursuit of more sustainable economic opportunities. Male weavers of these family enterprises rely on women's continuing allegiance to the ancestral craft to carry forward the economic gains of upholding the weaving craft when they embrace the option of mobility in order to alleviate the financial precarity and stabilise their livelihoods. The normative expectations of marriage within the weaving community, where women's labour is regulated and exploited via intra-community marriage, serve as the foundation for this practice. Women engage in complex negotiations, confront gendered expectations, and, in the worst situations, disrupt gender norms in the family, community, and the labour market throughout this process. The paper drawing from a qualitative study conducted in the handloom clusters of Nadia, West Bengal (India) critically examines the intricate negotiation of gender roles, presenting a nuanced portrayal of how women navigate societal expectations and contribute to reshaping gender norms within family enterprises and weaving community at large.

Responding to Covid-19 Pandemic: Policy and Governance Perspective to Reverse Migration in Uttarakhand

The coronavirus disease, commonly referred to as Covid-19, had engendered inadvertent and significant societal upheaval, widespread economic setbacks, and compelled the relocation of individuals on a global scale. Analogous repercussions have been witnessed in the context of India, notably exemplified by the mass exodus of migrant labourers from their designated areas of employment to their native regions, precipitated by a comprehensive governmental lockdown enacted to interrupt the transmission chain of Covid-19. This stringent lockdown exacerbated the plight of economically marginalised migrant workers, compelling them to endure financial precarity and minimal reserves while confined to their residences. Consequently, a substantial number of migrants, primarily employed in the informal sector, found themselves compelled to return to their ‘places of origin’ from their ‘places of destination’ as an imperative means of survival. The present article elucidates the characteristics and ramifications of this phenomenon of reverse migration, undertaking an evaluative analysis of India’s response to the challenges posed by reverse migration in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Special attention is directed towards the policy and governance dynamics, with a particular focus on the hilly state of Uttarakhand, India.

Debt on the Ground: The Scholarly Discourse of Bankruptcy and Financial Precarity

A rich literature uses law and social science methods to better understand household financial distress and overindebtedness both inside and outside of bankruptcy. This scholarship contributes to several ongoing scholarly conversations, such as those on income and wealth disparities across race and class, how people live in circumstances of financial precarity, why people turn to the legal system to solve their problems, and how to improve access to justice so people can get the help they need. We first review the current literature about who files bankruptcy, the contributors to people's need to file bankruptcy, what happens to them in bankruptcy court, and what happens after their bankruptcy cases conclude. We then outline a research agenda of low-hanging fruit that will contribute to broader sociological and sociolegal research agendas, including economic mobility, aging, gender studies, health studies, family studies, social psychology, and policy work.

Mental Health Concerns During COVID-19: An Observational Study Among a Predominantly Black Community in New York City.

This study examined the prevalence of mental health concerns and its association with COVID-19, selected social determinants of health, and psychosocial risk factors in a predominantly racial/ethnic minoritized neighborhood in New York City. Adult Harlem residents (N = 393) completed an online cross-sectional survey from April to September 2021. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4) and the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PC-PTSD) were used to evaluate mental health concerns. Poisson regression with robust variance quantified the associations of interests via prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Two-thirds (66.4%) of theresidents reported experiencing mental health concerns, including PTSD (25.7%), depression (41.2%), and anxiety (48.1%). Residents with low-income housing status (PR = 1.16; 95% CI 1.01, 1.34), alcohol misuse (PR = 1.68; 95% CI 1.40, 2.01), food insecurity (PR = 1.23; 95% CI 1.07, 1.42), exposure to interpersonal violence (PR = 1.33; 95% CI 1.08, 2.65), and experience of discrimination (PR = 1.53, 95% CI 1.23-1.92) were more likely to report mental health concerns. Better community perception of the police (PR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.95, 0.99) was associated with fewer mental health concerns. No associations were observed for employment insecurity, housing insecurity, or household COVID-19 positivity with mental health concerns. This study showed a high prevalence of mental health concerns in a low-income racial/ethnic minoritized community, where COVID-19 and social risk factors compounded these concerns. Harlem residents face mental health risks including increased financial precarity, interpersonal violence, and discrimination exposure. Interventions are needed to address these concurrent mental health and psychosocial risk factors, particularly in racial/ethnic minoritized residents.

“A Hard Road With Personal Costs”: How Digital-First Nonprofit News Founders Navigate Precarity

As the journalism industry descends further into economic collapse, precarity has become an increasingly useful concept in studies of newswork. While a growing body of literature has begun to consider how founders of startup journalism outlets navigate their own precarious self-employment, the existing scholarship pays little attention to journalists working at digital-first nonprofit newsrooms. This study draws on a political economic framework and in-depth interviews with founders of nonprofit news organizations in the United States to understand how these newsworkers experience and navigate various forms of precarity. Findings from this research confirm that precarity is ubiquitous among nonprofit news founders, and that financial precarity is particularly acute. Founders rely heavily on their personal and professional communities for support in navigating their precarious working conditions, and find great satisfaction in providing high-quality news and information to their communities. This study adds to growing calls for a labor turn in journalism studies and contributes to the literature on journalistic precarity by extending the concept to examine nonprofit newsrooms and their founders. Additionally, these findings provide insight into specific ways in which the burden of precarity on founders can be reduced.

Between hope and despair: experiences of precariousness and precarity in the lived experiences of recent diabetic amputees in primary care

Precariousness dominates the lives of patients with recent diabetic lower extremity amputations. Wound healing is not guaranteed, post-amputation mortality is high and personal and social identities are destabilised. This study explores the experiences of nine post-amputation diabetic patients in the context of Singapore’s primary health and social care and diversified cultural setting. The loss of physical integrity leads to the self being rendered precarious in multiple ways: emotional-existential precariousness results from uncertainty about survival; agentic precariousness, from restrictions to the individual’s autonomy; the social self is rendered precarious as social relations and identities are changed; and financial precarity, which arises from job insecurity and treatment cost. Patients act to overcome precariousness and regain agency in various ways. Supporting patients’ agency should be integral to all healthcare interventions, at whatever stage of the patient’s journey, and needs to take into account cultural roles and values.

Debt on the Ground: The Scholarly Discourse of Bankruptcy and Financial Precarity

Debt on the Ground: The Scholarly Discourse of Bankruptcy and Financial Precarity

Investigating the effect of financial precarity on employee engagement and innovative work behaviour: evidence from India

Investigating the effect of financial precarity on employee engagement and innovative work behaviour: evidence from India

“None of us are lying”: an interpretive description of the search for legitimacy and the journey to access quality health services by individuals living with Long COVID

BackgroundUnderstanding of Long COVID has advanced through patient-led initiatives. However, research about barriers to accessing Long COVID services is limited. This study aimed to better understand the need for, access to, and quality of, Long COVID services. We explored health needs and experiences of services, including ability of services to address needs.MethodsOur study was informed by the Levesque et al.’s (2013) “conceptual framework of access to health care.” We used Interpretive Description, a qualitative approach partly aimed at informing clinical decisions. We recruited participants across five settings. Participants engaged in one-time, semi-structured, virtual interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim. We used reflexive thematic analysis. Best practice to ensure methodological rigour was employed.ResultsThree key themes were generated from 56 interviews. The first theme illustrated the rollercoaster-like nature of participants’ Long COVID symptoms and the resulting impact on function and health. The second theme highlighted participants’ attempts to access Long COVID services. Guidance received from healthcare professionals and self-advocacy impacted initial access. When navigating Long COVID services within the broader system, participants encountered barriers to access around stigma; appointment logistics; testing and ‘normal’ results; and financial precarity and affordability of services. The third theme illuminated common factors participants liked and disliked about Long COVID services. We framed each sub-theme as the key lesson (stemming from all likes and dislikes) that, if acted upon, the health system can use to improve the quality of Long COVID services. This provides tangible ways to improve the system based directly on what we heard from participants.ConclusionWith Long COVID services continuously evolving, our findings can inform decision makers within the health system to better understand the lived experiences of Long COVID and tailor services and policies appropriately.

Tidalectic Un/mapping and the Performance of African Diasporic Imagination in the Repertory of Katherine Dunham

This article foregrounds imagination to consider how African diasporic conditions converge with choreographic expression. The analysis “un/maps” dominant understandings of the choreographic process of mid-twentieth-century African American choreographer-anthropologist Katherine Dunham by expanding Kamau E. Brathwaite's (1993) concept of Tidalectics beyond the Caribbean to the wider African diaspora and a distinctly Caribbean comprehension of diasporic imagination. Utilizing datasets and visualizations created by the project, Dunham's Data: Katherine Dunham and Digital Methods for Dance Historical Inquiry, this article traces how the concept of Brazil is imagined and reimagined within Dunham's archive from 1937 to 1962. In doing so, it considers the complex positionality of Dunham as both a pioneering minoritized woman navigating the politics of race, gender, and financial precarity, and someone who yielded their imperial privilege as a US citizen through their career to bring nuance to Dunham's narrative as a canonical dance figure.

Period poverty’s impact on the futures of its most marginalized groups


 The main objective in this paper was to conceptualize how period poverty impacts the upward mobility of women and girls in the United States. With the topic of period poverty gaining awareness and the idea of menstruation becoming more mainstream, the impacts of menstruation on a menstruator’s future must be acknowledged also. One of the main ways to identify these impacts, specifically from a financial perspective, is through socioeconomic growth as it demonstrates an intersection between a person’s economic stability and the opportunities they have been given from a younger age. In this paper, period poverty and its influence on upward mobility is broken into demographic groups of girls in middle and high school, women in college, low-income women, and incarcerated women. This research connects the areas of period poverty and upward mobility to identify how financial precarity and menstruation limit the futures of its most struggling groups.