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From ‘having’ to ‘being’: self‐worth and the current crisis of American society[Note 10. This address was delivered at the London School of ...]
Author(s) -
Lamont Michèle
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the british journal of sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.826
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1468-4446
pISSN - 0007-1315
DOI - 10.1111/1468-4446.12667
Subject(s) - universalism , dream , face (sociological concept) , competition (biology) , immigration , middle class , narrative , political science , mythology , sociology , inequality , diversity (politics) , political economy , development economics , gender studies , psychology , social psychology , economics , history , law , social science , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , mathematical analysis , mathematics , neuroscience , politics , biology , classics
With growing inequality, the American dream is becoming less effective as a collective myth. With its focus on material success, competition and self‐reliance, the intensified diffusion of neoliberal scripts of the self is leading the upper‐middle class toward a mental health crisis while the working class and low‐income groups do not have the resources needed to live the dream. African Americans, Latinos and undocumented immigrants, who are presumed to lack self‐reliance, face more rigid boundaries. One possible way forward is broadening cultural membership by promoting new narratives of hope centered on a plurality of criteria of worth, ‘ordinary universalism’ and destigmatizing stigmatized groups.