Precarious Mobility: Trying and Failing to Get Ahead in the 21st Century

Abstract

This dissertation examines how the recent rise in college going for young people from low-income families in the United States has shaped processes that reproduce poverty. Drawing on 2,400 hours of ethnographic fieldwork conducted over 25 months with eight young Black men in New Orleans, the study provides an in-depth look at the experience of trying to escape poverty by attending college. It argues that the concept of precarity, which is often invoked to explain the difficulty of daily survival for poor and working-class people, also captures what makes the work of trying to “get ahead” so fraught. This work is fundamentally unstable, in that small, unexpected problems can quickly escalate into total failure. It is counterintuitive, in that success can demand cautious strategies that feel at odds with one’s inner drive. And it is high consequence, in that failure often leaves one much worse off for having tried. The stories of the men profiled in this study paint a new picture of social reproduction in the United States. As they transition to adulthood, young people from low-income families navigate an array of opportunities that appear promising but that conceal considerable risk. Because wholeheartedly chasing such opportunities increases exposure to these hidden hazards, such striving can inadvertently but easily contribute to failure. Succeeding at these opportunities does not require the creative spark or superhuman effort so often valorized in US achievement ideology, but rather caution, patient self-denial, and more than a little luck.