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The Unfreedom of Being Other

Canadian Lone Mothers’ Experiences of Poverty and ‘Life on the Cheque’

Elaine M. Power

Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada

This article theorizes the experiences of lone mothers living on welfare in contemporary consumer society using a governmentality framework, with particular attention to liberalism’s practices of unfreedom. Analysis suggests two main ways in which lone mothers were constructed and disciplined as Other: as ‘welfare bums’ who were not in the labour market; and as ‘flawed consumers’ without the financial resources to participate in consumer society. This type of study, with its attention to the ‘messy actualities’ of how subjects take up neo-liberal discourse, offers possibilities for the re-politicization of the Foucauldian-inspired governmentality literature by accounting for the costs of neo-liberal forms of rule, and providing insight into how it might be contested.

Key Words: consumer society • governmentality • lone mothers • neo-liberalism • welfare

Sociology, Vol. 39, No. 4, 643-660 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0038038505056023
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