Polish low-income mothers: conversions of human, social and cultural capitals through their lifetime

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to identify the human, social and cultural capitals of Polish low-income mothers, and to reconstruct the capitals’ conversion. The research was carried out using the method of (auto)biographical interview rooted in the tradition of symbolic interactionism, while data (autobiographical narratives about life) were collected in two Polish cities as part of the ISOTIS project, using the narrative interview technique developed by Schütze [(2008). Biography analysis on the empirical base of autobiographical narratives: How to analyse autobiographical narrative interviews – part one. European Studies on Inequalities and Social Cohesion, 1, 153–242], which was adapted by the ISOTIS project team. The analysis of women’s autobiographical narratives made it possible to reconstruct the events that were significant to them and the resources that they activated in everyday situations, compensating for the shortage of material capital. Recognition of the sequences of process structures occurring in the biographies revealed the narrators’ attitude to certain phases in their lives and the dominant forms of their activity that influenced their decisions and choices.