Fragmented Flourishing: Maternal Perspectives on the Good Life in an Unequal Social Landscape Restricted; Files Only
Curtis, Cara (Spring 2023)
Abstract
This dissertation investigates maternal conceptions of “flourishing” in the context of structural injustice in the United States. To do so, it draws on ethnographic research in a theological studies program for incarcerated women in Georgia and in mothers’ groups at nearby affluent churches. Despite growing attention to everyday ethical reasoning in anthropology and religious ethics, ordinary people’s understandings of the “good life” remain understudied. I argue that experiences of flourishing are “fragmented” and fleeting for both sets of women in my study, largely due to their (very different) entanglements in structural injustice. The fragments of flourishing that they describe, however, and the specific barriers they encounter, can inform a vision for nurturing flourishing equitably throughout the US social fabric—which I sketch in my final chapter.
The argument unfolds across five core chapters. The first chapter offers a theoretical and practical explanation of what I mean by “structural injustice” with respect to the two populations in my study—in other words, the unequal landscape in which they are trying to flourish. In the second chapter, I introduce “fragmented flourishing” as a concept and show how it is present in the women’s lives, including, crucially, how their mundane, daily practices most directly enable moments of flourishing. Chapter Three examines the women’s roles as mothers and caregivers and argues that practices of care—for children, self, and community—are particularly potent for enabling fragments of flourishing. The fourth chapter, however, looks closely at the divergent ways that structural injustice roots itself in the lives of both groups, impeding their efforts to flourish in very different ways. Building on all of this, Chapter Five offers a constructive set of practices that mothers—especially those with relative wealth and social power—can take up to nurture a world where opportunities for flourishing are more expansive and equitable.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction
The Same World_______________________________________________________________ 1
Chapter 1
Landscapes of Injustice:
Unequal Vulnerability and Flourishing in the Contemporary United States________________ 41
Chapter 2
Flourishing, "Right Now:" Imaginging and Practicing a Fragmentary Good Life____________ 85
Chapter 3
Nourishing Flourishing Fragments: Care For the Sacred in All People___________________ 125
Chapter 4
Flourishing Constrained: The Lived Consequences of Structural Injustice________________ 169
Chapter 5
Larger, Freer, More Loving: Toward an Interconnected and Equitable Flourishing_________ 211
Epilogue___________________________________________________________________ 250
Appendix 1: Figures__________________________________________________________ 257
Bibliography________________________________________________________________ 265
About this Dissertation
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File download under embargo until 22 May 2029 | 2023-04-06 20:34:40 -0400 | File download under embargo until 22 May 2029 |
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