Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Zajicek, Anna M
• Koski, Patricia R

Titel

Strategies of Resistance to Stigmatization among White Middle-Class Singles

Ist Teil von

• Sociological spectrum, 2003-07, Vol.23 (3), p.377-403

Erscheinungsjahr

2003

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Goffman's analysis of stigma management recently has been reexamined by scholars who focus on the ways in which actors not only manage but also resist stigmatization. This article represents a similar effort. Building on existing literature & interviews with 28 British middle-class respondents, we explore how single people who are stigmatized & marginalized in a culture that celebrates family & marriage resist cultural devaluation. While we acknowledge singles' reliance on strategies aimed to control social interactions, our primary focus is on their deployment of discursive "tools" to construct & present themselves as fulfilled, successful, & acceptable. As such, resistance is shaped by the existence of positive social representations that can be shared with other people. In this context, our main contributions include a broader view of resistance & the attention we give to the fragmented & contradictory nature of these individual acts. We discuss the implications of this in relation to future studies of singles & analyses of individual resistance. 42 References. Adapted from the source document.