Conference paper
Voicing a new life narrative: Communicating the dynamics of change in a welfare-dependent family
Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA2017): Comunication Worlds: Access, Voice, Diversity, Engagement (University of Sydney, 04/07/2017–07/07/2017)
07/07/2017
Abstract
This article explores the way one mother from a disadvantaged family is rebuilding her life despite the disadvantages of poverty, domestic violence and drug dependency. It examines her determined emotional commitment to change as she explains the barriers to change that she has experienced. As she communicates her life narrative, she builds for herself and her children an understanding of a different possible future in which she and her children have access to a more independent, positive life experience. Seligman (2006) suggests that changing self-talk helps people to escape from pessimism and move from powerlessness to autonomy and hope. This mother makes powerful declarations about her life changes with the aim of providing her children with a vision of a more hopeful future. This article contributes the often-silenced voice of a welfare-reliant woman to a discussion of different worlds of communication, and opens a window on diversities of engagement with these worlds.
Details
- Title
- Voicing a new life narrative: Communicating the dynamics of change in a welfare-dependent family
- Authors/Creators
- Kylie J StevensonLelia Green - Edith Cowan University
- Conference
- Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA2017): Comunication Worlds: Access, Voice, Diversity, Engagement (University of Sydney, 04/07/2017–07/07/2017)
- Grants
- A Hand Up: Disrupting the communication of intergenerational welfare dependency, LP140100935, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
- Identifiers
- 991005575665807891
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Murdoch University
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference paper
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