Identity and Empowerment: Resistance to Institutional Discourse in a Human Service Organization

Abstract

Human Service Organizations (HSOs) have historically provided much needed assistance to the unemployed, underemployed and other individuals who have fallen victim to harsh economic times. These organizations, particularly beneficial to women during times of great economic crisis, are sites of identity formation and often sites of resistance (Trethewey, 1997). Using one case from the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation collection, this article revisits communication scholar Angela Trethewey's 1997 work, which argues that HSO clients come to understand who they are discursively through negotiated exchanges with case workers who play a major role in deciding the extent of their care. This article explores the sociohistorical positioning and “imaging” of elderly women in America and how those images are reified and resisted rhetorically by the women of the Luella Hannan Memorial Home. We examine the double-edged nature of resistance, where clients are often simultaneously victims and agents, negotiating institu...