新作坊 Humanity Innovation and Social Practice

The Wounds of Exclusion: Poverty, Women's Health and Social Justice

摘要：

As well as levels of exclusion, [Colleen Reid] presents the dynamic and sometimes contradictory discourses co-created by the women as they explored their experiences of health and living in poverty. Yet she emphasizes: "The following discourses capture only partial moments of the women's identities; they are not meant to be seen as static or fixed representations" (p. 168). They include the powerless victim discourse ("there is nothing that can be done to change my situation"), the legitimacy and entitlement discourse ("my hardship is more legitimate than someone else's so I am more entitled to assistance and acceptance"), and the individual work ethic discourse ("I am in control of my life and will rise above this situation"). Reid argues that each discourse unwittingly reinforces the dominant health discourse that creates the exclusion: in part by not holding society accountable for the injustice of health inequities among citizens. However, she notes that in the discourses were examples of individual empowerment and action. Further, she also identifies a critical and collectivist discourse through which the women recognize how social conditions work to disadvantage and disempower them and how they may challenge the dominant stereotypes of women living in poverty. Reid conducted her research in an existing feminist action research project in British Columbia known as Women Organizing Activities for Women (WOAW). The program developed out of a workshop for women living in poverty that aimed to expose barriers that prevented their participation in community recreation. A doctoral student, Reid became involved in WOAW as project manager. She helped to organize a subgroup (the Research Team) created as a place for women to discuss their experiences of health and poverty and to consider forms of collective action. All the participants in Reid's project were WOAW members. Data were gathered from Research Team meetings' transcripts and field notes, one-on-one interviews, and participant observation. Throughout the book, Reid addresses the challenges of ensuring that the data collection and analysis processes were collaborative with the women on the Research Team, one of the goals of FAR.