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Poverty and Intersectionality: A Multidimensional Look into the Lives of the Impoverished
Bige Saatcioglu and Canan Corus
Journal of Macromarketing 2014 34: 122 originally published online 21 January 2014
DOI: 10.1177/0276146713520600

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Article
Journal of Macromarketing
2014, Vol. 34(2) 122-132
Poverty and Intersectionality: ª The Author(s) 2014
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A Multidimensional Look into the Lives DOI: 10.1177/0276146713520600
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of the Impoverished

Bige Saatcioglu1 and Canan Corus2

Abstract
Subsistence consumers are disadvantaged and marginalized on many levels, including financial deprivation, poor health, lack of
access to resources, and social stigmatization. The disadvantages experienced by subsistence consumers are interconnected
and co-constitutive; being disadvantaged in one domain often intersects with other disadvantages, contributing to an overall
vulnerability within the market system. Drawing from the intersectionality paradigm, the authors examine an overlooked
low-income community that shares elements of subsistence contexts. The findings reveal multiple ways in which a trailer park
community residents experience and manage intertwined disadvantages. Several overlapping identity categories (i.e., socio-
economic status, health status, and type of housing) vis-à-vis structural and relational dynamics are fleshed out. Implications
for research on subsistence marketplaces and the usefulness of the intersectionality approach for macromarketing research
are discussed.

Keywords
intersectionality, subsistence marketplaces, macromarketing, vulnerability, poverty

Macromarketing is focused on market problems and solutions
to those problems that would improve the wellbeing of various
stakeholders within the marketing system (Ferrell and Ferrell
2008; Layton 2007). Even though macromarketers have
explored constraints facing subsistence consumers, such as
social and political disempowerment (Corus and Ozanne
2012) and lack of access to basic resources (Weidner, Rosa,
and Viswanathan 2010), studies that analyze multiple levels
of marginalization are not commonly published in the Journal
of Macromarketing (for an exception, see Baker, Gentry, and
Rittenburg 2005).
Often referred to as the ‘‘bottom-of-the-pyramid,’’ subsis-
tence marketplaces are home to social groups that lack finan-
cial and material resources but are rich in emotional, social,
and cognitive abilities (Prahalad and Hammond 2002;
Viswanathan and Rosa 2010). Close-knit social networks, both
among the consumers and between the consumers and market-
ers, operate in subsistence settings; consumers’ entrepreneurial
initiatives help improve their personal and communal well-
being (Viswanathan et al., 2009; Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth
2010). Subsistence research often focuses on less-developed
economies with large poor populations, such as India and Ban-
gladesh (Viswanathan et al. 2009; Viswanathan, Sridharan, and
Ritchie 2010). Despite extended interest in some other contexts
including South Africa (Ruth and Hsiung 2007), attention to
subsistence consumers in developed countries is scant (for
exceptions, see Hill 1991; Hill and Stephens 1997). We
investigate how poverty is experienced in a low-income, rural
mobile home park community in the United States, pointing out
the differences and similarities of this setting vis-à-vis more
traditional subsistence settings. Deriving from the intersection-
ality paradigm, we explicate how intersecting disadvantages
play out within macro structures such as welfare and health-
care. Our research is inspired by calls to encourage businesses
to contribute to just marketing systems (Hill 2005; Kotler,
Roberto, and Leisner 2006). We call for broadened conceptions
of struggles for fair exchange and suggest that looking closely
at overlapping disadvantages can help design fair marketing
systems.
Next, we review the basic tenets of the intersectionality
paradigm and distinguish it from previous research that high-
lights multiple disadvantages experienced by the poor.
1
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ozyegin University, Istanbul,
Turkey
2
Lubin School of Business, Pace University, New York, NY, USA
Corresponding Author:
Bige Saatcioglu, Ozyegin University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative
Sciences, Nisantepe Mh. Orman Sk. No. 13 34794 Cekmekoy, Istanbul, Turkey.
Email: bige.saatcioglu@ozyegin.edu.tr

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Saatcioglu and Corus
Theoretical Framework
Intersectionality: A Paradigm for Exploring Intersecting
Disadvantages
With roots in critical feminist thought, intersectionality is a
theoretical paradigm that examines multiple overlapping
marginalizations at the individual and institutional levels
(Crenshaw 1991; McCall 2005). An intersectional approach
facilitates contextualized understanding of the experiences of
the marginalized. Fundamentally, intersectionality argues that
members of marginalized groups are hardly homogenous. For
example, while some African American women are faced with
degrading cultural representations related to their race, others
are victims of gender-related domestic and sexual violence
(Crenshaw 1991). Intersectionality offers various strategies to
explore the similarities and differences across and within social
groups that experience intersecting marginalizations (Crocket
et al. 2011; Ozanne and Fischer 2012).
Originally focused on categories of race, gender, and class,
this research stream has expanded to consider other social cate-
gories such as sexual orientation, occupation, health, and age
(Gopaldas 2013). Increasingly, consumer researchers who
study marginalization call for intersectional work that not only
analyzes overlapping social categories (Crockett et al. 2011;
Gopaldas 2013; Ozanne and Fischer 2012) but also provides
a deeper analysis of structural processes that create and exacer-
bate consumer vulnerability (Baker, Gentry, and Rittenburg
2005).
Poverty and Subsistence Marketplaces through an
Intersectional Lens Methodology
Approximately 46 million Americans live in poverty, which
Context of the Study
represents almost 15% of the population (U.S. Census Bureau
2013). Various forms of American poverty (e.g., urban/rural
poor, working poor) exemplify subsistence contexts where
individuals barely have sufficient resources to get by (Hill
2001). Despite nuances across different poverty subpopula-
tions, many poor Americans suffer from similar intertwined
structural disadvantages such as lack of affordable housing,
inadequate healthcare, racial discrimination and segregation
(Mishel, Bernstein, and Schmitt 1999).
Recent research recognizes poverty as marked not only by
economic disadvantage but also by multiple other disadvan-
tages including psychological, social and political deprivations
(Hill 2001; Shultz and Holbrook 2009). Poverty as multiple
disadvantages approach derives from an understanding of
vulnerability as a multidimensional state which consumers try
to manage either through individual means (Baker, Gentry, and
Rittenburg 2005; Hill 2001), as a community (Baker, Hunt,
and Rittenburg 2007), or through marketplace stakeholders
such as organizations considering entry into recovering eco-
nomies (Manfredo and Shultz 2007). Even though this per-
spective recognizes the concurrent role of individual and
structural dynamics in causing vulnerability (Baker 2009), the
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123
intersectionality paradigm is distinct in several ways (see
Table 1 for a detailed comparison of the two paradigms).
A comprehensive approach to multiple intertwined dynamics
affecting consumers’ lives is in line with Baker, Gentry, and
Rittenburg’s (2005), Hill’s (2001), and Peñaloza’s (1995) work.
In this research stream, vulnerability is viewed as a complex pro-
cess arising from the interaction of individual characteristics/
states and external conditions. Shultz and Holbrook (2009) high-
light the relevance of an approach that recognizes the systemic
nature of vulnerability, yet their model foregrounds individual
factors. In an intersectionality approach, analysis of consumer
vulnerability goes beyond consumers’ idiographic experiences
and the temporary or state-based nature of vulnerability (Baker,
Gentry, and Rittenburg 2005). As such, a more systemic and
group-based vulnerability is emphasized (Commuri and Ekici
2008). Moreover, intersectionality takes a broader approach and
considers the intertwined economic, social, cultural, and political
contexts in which individual and external conditions interact.
For example, in a health intervention program (REAL MEN)
designed to help young men leaving jail to adapt to community
life, researchers and healthcare professionals explored how
social constructions of masculinity, race, and class intersect
to create unequal life opportunities (Schulz, Freudenberg,
and Daniels 2006). As a result, the interventions designed
effectively addressed the life situations of the participants at
multiple levels. The participants were linked to high school,
GED, literacy, and job readiness programs, as well as local
substance abuse and physical and mental health programs in
their communities.
We explore the intersection of multiple identity categories of
the poor (e.g., employment, health status, housing) in a mobile
home park in the Southeast U.S. Mobile homes emerged as
low-cost opportunities for transient blue-collar workers and
veteran families to realize the American Dream of home own-
ership. However, since the 1960s, this form of housing has
largely been at the center of social stigmatization (Wallis
1991). As a housing form, mobile homes sometimes refer to
vacation homes preferred by the retirees and trailers used by
seasonal workers (Wallis 1991). The trailer park for this study
exemplifies the typical low-income marginalized mobile home
park community inhabited by people who struggle to make
ends meet.
Even though distinct in many ways, our trailer park commu-
nity bears some resemblance to traditional subsistence con-
texts. For example, all of our informants struggle to secure
their most basic needs such as food, healthcare, transportation,
and education (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010), some have
limited literacy skills (Viswanathan and Rosa 2007), and many
of them are physically and psychologically vulnerable.
The trailer park community is a particularly informative
context for exploring the overlapping disadvantages that
 Table 1. Comparison of Poverty as Multiple Deprivations and Poverty through Intersectionality Approaches.
124
Dimension
of Comparison
Goal of research
Approach to consumer
groups and social
categories
Relationship among
categories
Approach to vulnerability
Level of analysis
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Examination of factors
causing vulnerability
Criticism
Note: Parts of this table were adapted from and inspired by Hancock (2007) and Gopaldas (2013).
Traditional Research on Poverty as
Multiple Disadvantages
- To include previously overlooked or marginalized groups
- Analysis mostly within groups – analysis of ethnicity or nationality (e.g., Ruth and
Hsiung 2007), socio-economic status (e.g., Hill 1991; Hill and Stephens 1997),
employment and literacy skills (e.g., Viswanathan and Rosa 2007).
- Categories are mostly assumed to be independent and the relationship among
categories is thought to be additive. Often, one category is given primacy
while others are thought to be of secondary importance.
- Exemplar studies: gender as the primary category while health status and socio-
economic level are secondary categories (Lee, Ozanne, and Hill 1999); eth-
nicity as the main category while income, age, and language skills are sec-
ondary categories (Peñaloza 1995).
- Vulnerability as a state that can be temporary or transient (Baker, Gentry, and
Rittenburg 2005).
- Vulnerability as a shared communal experience (Baker, Hunt, and Rittenburg
(2007);
- Vulnerability as class-based (Commuri and Ekici 2008).
- Multiple ways of coping with vulnerability exist.
- Micro (e.g., individual, communal) and macro (i.e., institutional and structural)
- Exemplar studies: both micro and macro level of analysis within one study
(Sirgy, Lee, and Yu 2011); focus on individual dynamics (Hill and Kozup 2007);
focus on structural dynamics (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010).
- Foregrounding individual/consumer characteristics that cause vulnerability
(Baker, Gentry, and Rittenburg 2005; Shultz and Holbrook 2009)
- Foregrounding communal and structural aspects of vulnerability (Baker, Hunt,
and Rittenburg 2007; Commuri and Ekici 2008; Peñaloza 1995)
- At times, criticized for treating social groups as homogeneous with similar
needs and expectations
Intersectional Research on Poverty
as Multiple Disadvantages
- To include multiplicatively oppressed groups that are found at the intersections
of multiple categories
- Intracategorical (analyzing intersecting categories within a single social group).
Consumer research that reveals nuances across the poor such as the
homeless (Hill 1991), the welfare mothers (Hill and Stephens 1997), and the
rural poor (Lee, Ozanne, and Hill 1999) provide insinuations of
intracategorical intersectionality.
- Intercategorical (analyzing intersecting categories across social groups). For
example, Hondagneu-Sotelo (2001) compares the experiences of Latino
domestic workers to African American domestic workers.
- Categories are always assumed to be interdependent and the relationship
among categories is multiplicative. Categories matter equally.
- Exemplar study: the interrelatedness of categories of race, gender, and socio-
economic status are explored to understand African American women’s
marginalization (Crenshaw 1991).
- Vulnerability as status-based and institutionalized; certain ‘‘multiplicatively
oppressed groups’’ such as African Americans and the impoverished
(Gopaldas 2013) are systemically vulnerable.
- Multiple ways of coping with vulnerability exist but it is necessary to challenge
power relationships and institutionalized dynamics.
- Micro (e.g., individual, communal) integrated with macro (i.e., institutional and
structural)
- Schulz, Freudenberg, and Daniels (2006) discuss the REAL MEN intervention,
which draws from analyses of how masculinity, race, and class combine to
create unequal opportunities for healthcare. The program engages
participants in a critical examination of how dominant social constructions of
class and race as well as their own constructions of masculinity and health risk
behaviors affect their situations.
- Integration of structural (e.g., systematic racism, limited educational
opportunities), communal (e.g., lack of social support networks), and
individual (e.g., family disruptions, depression) factors causing vulnerability
(Schulz, Freudenberg, and Daniels 2006)
- At times, criticized for considering too many categories within one study
Saatcioglu and Corus
marginalize the American working poor. In addition to
economic deprivation and poor health, most of our trailer park
residents face multiple degrading categorizations. For example,
while most people have sympathy for the poor, conservative
and even some liberal (meaning left-leaning in the U.S.) polit-
ical agendas are guided by negative stereotypes of the poor as
lazy, deviant, and irresponsible individuals. Additionally, low-
income mobile home communities are generally socially and
spatially segregated due to prevalent negative stereotypes
(‘‘trailer trash’’) and zoning regulations to preserve the neigh-
boring land value (MacTavish 2007).
Data Collection
We conducted 40 in-depth interviews with 24 mobile home
park residents (see Table 2). Interviews took place at the
informants’ homes and lasted between 1 to 1.5 hours. The
informants were offered $20 per interview for their participa-
tion. All interviews were recorded using a digital tape recorder
and transcribed by a professional transcriber. The interview
data were analyzed through a hermeneutical approach, which
allows for analytical categories and themes to emerge, evolve,
and expand (Thompson 1997). This evolving interpretation
proceeded through moving back and forth between the data and
the literature to identify themes, categories, and patterns within
and across informants’ narratives.
Findings
We present our findings in two sections. The first section is
macro oriented; it highlights the structural inequalities and
their converging effects on our informants. The second section
is an analysis of more micro level processes, focusing on social
interactions and resulting vulnerabilities.
Intersecting Structural Disadvantages
Structural inequalities are linked to institutional, systemic
factors that sustain marginalization of disadvantaged groups.
These inequalities often contribute to the perpetuation of
various disadvantages such as lack of employment, inadequate
healthcare, lack of affordable housing, and political disempo-
werment (Newman and Chen 2007; Shipler 2004).
Our informants cite several intersecting structural dynamics
that contribute to their marginalization. Here, the lived experi-
ences of poverty are invested with ideological meanings and
the resulting deprivations are perceived as the outcome of
structural failings (Newman and Chen 2007). We examine the
overlapping systemic inequalities within the healthcare, finan-
cial, and welfare systems.
Healthcare system. The systemic disparities between the health
care received by the wealthy versus by the poor in the United
States have been documented in previous studies (Sirgy, Lee,
and Yu 2011). The poor are disadvantaged in the healthcare
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125
system for many reasons, including lack of literacy skills and
social class standing (Newman and Chen 2007).
Poor health and lack of access to adequate healthcare is per-
haps one of the most significant disadvantages experienced by
the informants. Our findings highlight that the healthcare
inequality is even evident within the same social class of work-
ing poor. Furthermore, based on our informant’s account
below, the patterns of practice in the healthcare system can per-
petuate vulnerabilities, especially in the cases of patients with
deep financial constrains:
People without insurance are treated different . . . Let’s say I went
in for cancer. Had to get a lump removed, that’s what I went in for.
I have insurance; I pay all my co-pay’s and stuff, they take care of
me. Let’s say my neighbor across the road here, he don’t have
insurance. If he went to the doctor for the same lump that I have,
the doctor would say that it’s fine until it gets bigger . . . So he
wouldn’t get the surgery whereas I did. I’ve seen people die sitting
there waiting for the treatment because they can’t afford it. (Matt)
Health-related disadvantages are perpetuated by other dis-
advantages such as economic deprivation, lack of employment,
and unjust treatment in the workplace. Irene discusses her
experience of a work-related physical injury. At her workplace,
she fell, passed out, and broke her shoulder. However, she was
denied worker’s compensation because she could not prove
whether her injury was related to her falling and passing out
or passing out first and then falling. Thus, she became disabled
and dependent on her daughter. Irene attributes her economic
and social vulnerability to the dynamics of the healthcare and
legal system and feels her hard work has not been reciprocated:
‘‘I’ve been working public work since I was 14 and get turned
down for every program out there.’’ Her vulnerability in one
domain becomes contingent upon and at times exacerbates her
vulnerability in another domain. She talks about her vicious cir-
cle of unemployment, resulting financial deprivation, and
dependency: she has injured her arm and lost her job as well
as her insurance. Hence, she cannot seek treatment [and there-
fore get a job], which concurrently leaves her out of the labor
market, health system, as well as the financial system.
I’d be working now. I mean I’ve had three people that would hire me
if I can get my arm fixed, but I can’t get my arm fixed. Until I get the
arm fixed I can’t work . . . I have no job, I have no income, I have no
insurance, I have nothing of value to sell. I live with my daughter to
have a place to stay and food to eat, you know, her and her husband
are giving me that until I can get my shoulder fixed. (Irene)
The interconnected nature of structural vulnerabilities also
resonates in John’s struggle with poor health and material
deprivation. He describes how multiple stakeholders within the
healthcare system (i.e., social security services, the insurance
company, his healthcare provider) started a dispute, while his
disability was advancing: ‘‘They are just arguing now over who
is going to pay me and who is not. So, no one is focusing on my
problem to get it taken care of. ’’
126
Table 2. Informant Characteristics.

Name Age Housing Status Present/Past Employment Education Status Health Status

Mary 40s owner; lives with husband unemployed; telemarketer, waitress elementary school, vocational disabled, recovering
training addict
Janice 40s owner; single nursing and cook; unemployed middle school, vocational training recovered addict
Amanda 40s owner; single truck driver; telemarketer, cashier, government job high school, vocational training recovered addict
Tina 50s owner; single unemployed; nursing community college disabled
Whitney 30s renter, lives with boyfriend and kids unemployed (going to school); N/A community college healthy
Emily 50s owner; lives with partner unemployed, home-based business; managed high school disabled
convenience store
Matt 30s renter; lives with wife and kids unemployed; manufacturing, nursing, private community college disabled
detective
Samantha 30s renter; lives with husband and kids retail store manager; homemaker high school, job training healthy
Irene 50s renter; lives with daughter’s family unemployed; dishwasher, food services community college disabled
Sharon 30s renter; lives with husband and two kids homemaker; custodial worker high school healthy
John 40s owner; lives alone disability; food services, store management community college disabled
Jennifer 40s renter; lives with husband and five kids disability; food services, arts and crafts business middle school disabled
Nancy 30s renter; lives with partner and four kids secretary; merchandising, secretary community college healthy
Mike 60s owner; lives with partner disability; construction worker elementary school disabled
Wanda 50s owner; lives with partner disability; has never worked some elementary school disabled
Robert 80s renter; lives alone disability; construction worker middle school disabled
Melissa 20s renter; lives with kids welfare and food services; dishwasher some high school healthy
Lucie 50s renter to owner; lives with sons housekeeper, retail; housekeeper middle school healthy
Emma 30s partner rents; lives with partner waitress; food services, housekeeper, babysitter some high school recovered addict

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Anita 40s renter; lives with her two sons unemployed; housekeeper, public services some high school recovering addict
Deborah 40s renter; lives with partner, her son, and his family cashier; housekeeper high school healthy
Josh 40s renter; lives with partner unemployed; housekeeper high school healthy
Tim 50s renter; lives with wife and son unemployed; government job, custodial work middle school, vocational training disabled
Velma 30s renter; lives with husband and son food services; housekeeper elementary school, vocational recovering addict
training
Saatcioglu and Corus
Financial system. The financial system also plays a substantial
role in the marginalization of underprivileged individuals and
already disadvantaged communities. Predatory lending
practices target vulnerable groups such as the elderly, impover-
ished, and minorities (Hill and Kozup 2007). The lack of access
to financial services (e.g., credit and checking accounts) high-
lights the restricted choices available to the poor. Below, an
informant offers an account of how his lack of access to
resources perpetuates his financial deprivation.
We don’t have the luxury of accountants that write our bills for us or our
lawyers that take care of things when they don’t go right. So, we have to
suffer with whatever the credit companies deliver upon us. (John)
Welfare system. Welfare programs operate based on demon-
strable level of need, often with stringent eligibility criteria and
close monitoring of ‘‘cheats’’ in the system (Hill and Stephens
1997). Beneficiaries of the welfare system are often frustrated
with service providers and delays in receiving resources and
some exit social services prematurely (Shipler 2004). As a case
in point, Sharon explains how her family was denied govern-
ment assistance in the form of food stamps because her hus-
band’s income was $1/hour above the qualification cutoff:
‘‘They make up their mind and they send you your letter and
you can appeal, but what are you going to appeal? A dollar
an hour? I mean are you going to appeal a dollar?’’
Hancock (2004) examines the public identities of welfare
beneficiaries from an intersectionality viewpoint and highlights
the categorization of social groups around large entities such as
class and ethnicity as well as unfair moral judgments ascribed
to groups that are the beneficiaries of welfare programs (e.g.,
‘‘welfare queens’’). These multiple identities and associated
stigmas serve as ideological justification for specific policy
agendas (e.g., Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities
Act of 1996; Hancock 2004). The welfare regulation trend
toward ‘‘the criminalization of poverty’’ (Gustafson 2009)
entangles welfare dependence with criminality and these con-
verging labels are reflected in the interwoven welfare and crim-
inal justice systems. Our informants voice their perceptions of
the welfare system as degrading and dehumanizing:
They look at you like you’re asking for their blood. . . . Like you’re
a bum off the street regardless of whether you’re a working per-
son . . . You know, you can tell when somebody looks at you with
disgust. (Irene)
In addition, the park residents complain about the difficulty of
navigating the welfare domain due to the perceived irrationality
and complexity of the process that varies from state to state. The
stringent welfare criteria make one informant feel like she is fac-
ing an irrational system that seems extremely difficult to navigate.
It’s like, you’ve got a sheet of paper and you open it up and there
are questions on here. It would cover this table, questions, ques-
tions . . . In Colorado, when you went to try and get food stamps,
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127
you didn’t go to welfare. You went to the agriculture department.
They determined your eligibility and they didn’t ask all these stu-
pid questions. What you owned outside of there, they didn’t care
about . . . you know, you can’t eat a car. (Deborah)
Coping with Structural Disadvantages
An intersectional perspective also helps explore multiple ways
of coping with inequalities. One common coping tactic found
in other traditional subsistence settings is to form and rely on
social networks (Weidner, Rosa, and Viswanathan 2010) and
microenterprises (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010). The
strong social ties in subsistence marketplaces in less-developed
countries provide a way of coping with structural disadvantages.
However, our informants resort to more micro-level and unorga-
nized coping tactics. For instance, Anita chooses to ‘‘work the
system’’ by sending her friends to different food banks in the
town to get around the rule that limits such visits to once a
month. Likewise, Emma engages in ‘‘false compliance’’ (Scott
1985) to manage her child support payments. After being forced
to give the custody of her children to her mother due to her past
drug addiction, Emma explains how she ‘‘keeps them [the wel-
fare staff] quiet’’ by acting like a compliant citizen.
I signed away my rights because I couldn’t take care of my kids and
I don’t feel I should have to pay to take care of kids that I signed
away my rights to. Plus, I give them money all the time and mom,
it’s not mom that wants the child support, it’s where she gets the
check from the state on the kids called TANF, so it’s the state that
issued me to pay child support, it’s not her, but I think that’s not
fair . . . So, I paid like $20 a week [in child support]. But that equals
out to $100 a month when I’m supposed to be paying $249. But it
keeps them quiet. (Emma)
Emma also attends community picnics organized by a
volunteer organization at the park to secure food for herself,
boyfriend, and her dog. Other informants who have not yet
engaged in similar acts of defiance think that ‘‘cheating’’ and
‘‘lying’’ might be the only feasible ways to get their needs met.
As she expresses her anger towards the welfare system that
denied her compensation after a job-related injury, Irene
wishes she had lied.
I couldn’t lie. I could have went in and lied to them, you know, lied
to the people at workman’s comp hearing and said this is what
happened, and I could have gotten disability, but I didn’t know
to lie. I was telling the truth. I thought if you told the truth, you
know, good things are supposed to happen. It’s better to lie . . . this
country evidently runs on lies. Four dollars a gallon for a gallon of
gas? How is a regular person going to live in this country without
lying about everything? (Irene)
Irene’s excerpt above nicely articulates the interconnected
nature of disadvantages (i.e., financial deprivation, poor health,
unjust treatment within the welfare system). At a more ideolo-
gical level, the desire for fairer and more comprehensive public
128
policies is expressed by Matt who criticizes the government for
‘‘rebuilding other countries at the expense of taking care of
American people.’’ Offering macro level solutions, Matt
articulates:
We’re not responsible for every life on this earth, but we are
responsible for the lives in this country and feed the children.
We’ve got kids in this country that are under nourished, that are
misfed, and you go to apply for assistance, and you make too much
money because you make $6.00 an hour and you’ve got seven peo-
ple in your family. You don’t qualify for anything. It should be a
program in this country to help every person here before we go
somewhere else and help somebody else . . . (Matt)
Our informants rely on what we term as ‘‘linguistic tricks’’
(e.g., sarcasm, irony, cynicism). These individual tactics act as
‘‘everyday forms of resistance’’ or ‘‘weapons of the weak’’ (Scott
1985) that help subsistence consumers preserve their dignity
within a system perceived as ‘‘messed up.’’ For example, Irene
becomes sarcastic when she interacts with the bill collector.
So, the bill collector called today and wanted to know, well, didn’t
I have somewhere else I could get money from? You know, will
you loan me the money to pay my bills? That’s what I asked him.
I don’t have money, my friends are not rich people . . . I ain’t bor-
rowing no money. I just say, look, we can handle it one of two
ways. You can either quit harassing me until I get back to work and
get you paid or you can call my other bill collectors and you all can
start calling each other and start paying each other. (Irene)
Although these linguistic tricks do not have the impact of
organized forms of resistance (e.g., protests, strikes), they have
a therapeutic function when the informants feel hopeless. This
is in line with the notion that while subsistence consumers lack
economic and material resources, they rely on a rich repertoire
of emotional coping strategies (Viswanathan and Rosa 2007).
Intersecting Relational Disadvantages
Here, we examine the vulnerabilities of our informants at a
micro level, focusing on the dynamics of social interactions. Our
informants experience social stigmatization within multiple
domains and some cope with it through drinking and substance
abuse. As a case in point, one informant explains how her addic-
tion was fueled by the stigma of being poor, while poignantly,
becoming her primary mechanism for coping with poverty.
It’s hard to be poor and it’s [referring to her drug abuse] just a way
of dealing with it, you know, so you don’t have to think about it and
think about what other people think and, you know, how people
perceive you because if you’re high you really don’t care. (Velma)
Another common social stigma experienced by our infor-
mants is related to their substandard housing. Spatially segre-
gated to the outskirts of towns, trailer homes are generally
perceived as challenge to the American housing standards and
aesthetics norms (Wallis 1991). As Emily states: ‘‘people look
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Journal of Macromarketing 34(2)
down upon you because it’s a trailer. Lots of people they are
ashamed to say that they live in this park because people, you
know, they look down upon you when you do.’’ Our informants
discuss degrading labels used to refer to people who live in trai-
ler parks, as Anita says, ‘‘They call us trailer trash, didn’t you
know?’’ However, most of our informants do not seem to be
bothered with this degrading portrayal of trailer homes; they
cite affordability as the main reason for living in the park. Here,
the intersecting nature of poverty related disadvantages is once
again highlighted by our informants who point to the lack of
affordable housing as a structural problem while they also
experience the social stigma of living in a trailer park: ‘‘you
can’t afford to live in this country if you don’t have something
like this [referring to her trailer home]’’ (Irene).
Other intersecting social stigmas include negative social
stereotyping such as disparaging the poor’s intellectual cap-
abilities, suspecting their morality, and discounting possibili-
ties of upward mobility: ‘‘Automatically when you talk about
a trailer park, people think about poor people, trashy people,
drugs, crime, this and that,’’ says Tim.
Stigmatization of the trailer park community interacts with
other forms of marginalization. For instance, racial and social
class stigmatizations intersect in shaping teacher-student inter-
actions. Morris (2005) demonstrates the ways in which teachers
connect parents’ reliance on public assistance and living condi-
tion (i.e., cheaper forms of living such as trailer park or low
income housing projects) to students’ lack of motivation. Simi-
larly, our informant Samantha explains how her children are
treated differently by teachers and school representatives:
‘‘some of the kids who don’t come from a wealthy family get
treated a lot different than the kids who do come from money.’’
Likewise, Sharon describes the discriminatory treatment her
son receives at school.
They had one professor’s child . . . and he would act up all day long
in the class. Now when James [her son] gets in trouble in school,
the minute he does something they call home. James is not doing
this; he’s not doing that, whatever. This little boy [referring to the
professor’s child], they took him downtown and bought him ice
cream because he would not behave in school. (Sharon)
The social disadvantages experienced within the educational
domain also affect some of our adult informants and perpetuate
other disadvantages. For instance, Wanda, who is now in her
50s, started school at a relatively older age yet quit at third grade
when she was 17 years-old because she was ‘‘picked on by the
kids at the school . . . and the principal told [her] to go buy
me a bunch of books and read and quit school.’’ Here, the neg-
ative social stigmatization exacerbates other deprivations such as
lack of education, low literacy, and lack of a steady employment
that might have been achieved through schooling.
Coping with Relational Disadvantages
Our informants exercise critical thinking and offer an inte-
grated account of how social spheres are indeed interrelated.
Saatcioglu and Corus 129

The perceived lack of accountability and responsibility in many A lot of people that are living in $200,000 homes are starting to
social domains is emphasized by Irene who tries to make sense look at places like this to live because they are losing their home.
of the disadvantaged treatment her grandchildren receive at I watch the news everyday. I watch it at two thirty in the morning,
school: I watch it at seven o’clock at night, and it’s the same thing, people
are losing their homes everyday. (Velma)
Instead of correcting that child [referring to the professor’s child
mentioned above], they took him downtown and bought him ice
Other times, upward social comparison is used to cope with
cream so he would behave. You don’t reward one and correct the the stigma attached to trailer parks as social zones used for
others. If you’re going to make a rule, it’s got to apply to everybody illegal activities. While acknowledging the community prob-
or nobody . . . Nobody accepts responsibility, nobody is accounta- lems, our informants highlight the similarities between the park
ble for what they do or don’t do. And then you wonder why there and ‘‘rich neighborhoods.’’
are trailer parks. (Irene)
. . . it does draw people that are troubled . . . they steal things, but as
you read in the paper everyday you’ve got movie stars that didn’t
A few informants are trying to get out of the park to secure
pay their taxes so what’s the difference? You know, crime is a
more desirable housing. Engaging in home-based entrepre-
crime . . . There’s drug dealers all throughout the town. They are
neurial activities is a way to gain fiscal agency in order to
in every apartment complex . . . They want to identify the trailer
achieve this goal. For instance, Sharon makes photo albums park as trailer park trash, that we keep nothing but drug dealers and
and recipe cookbooks to sell to her friends and acquaintances. lowlifes in here. That’s not necessarily so. You can go right across
Emily makes and sells pocketbooks and helps people with through all of these fancy apartments over here. They are just more
their paperwork on their taxes and small businesses. However, sophisticated, that’s all. (John)
these entrepreneurial activities do not turn into the communal
micro-enterprises as in traditional subsistence contexts such
as India (Viswanathan, Sridharan, Ritchie 2010), Latin Amer- Discussion
ica, and China (Weidner, Rosa, and Viswanathan 2010).
Consumer researchers have long investigated multiple disad-
Structural and cultural reasons might help explain this dissim-
vantages that affect poor consumers, including low literacy
ilarity. In traditional subsistence markets, small business
(Viswanathan and Rosa 2007), ethnicity (Peñaloza 1995), gen-
entrepreneurship often emerges out of necessity to earn the
der and health status (Lee, Ozanne, and Hill 1999), and race
income for dire needs of sustenance and shelter. Local tradi-
(Crockett and Wallendorf 2004). Even though much evidence
tions put women at a disadvantage securing jobs in factories
exists on the multiplicative disadvantages facing the poor,
or finding other job opportunities. As a result, the majority
research that particularly focuses on the interplay of identity
of these entrepreneurs are women who are burdened with the
categories and communal/structural forces is still scant. Mar-
responsibility to maintain their families while possibly getting
keting researchers increasingly call for work designed to ana-
minimal to no support from their husbands (Viswanathan
lyze multiple categories of difference and to shed light unto
2011; Viswanathan, Gajendiran and Venkatesan 2008). Lack
how oppression on one dimension is shaped by oppression on
of coordinated communal participation in the marketing sys-
other dimensions (Crockett et al. 2011; Gopaldas 2013; Ozanne
tem could be a discouraging factor for trailer park residents.
and Fischer 2012).
The trailer park community is very heterogeneous in nature.
Our research contributes to this discussion by adopting an
Even though all of our informants are low-income, they have
intersectionality perspective within a low-income neighbor-
different conceptions of poverty and distinct needs. While
hood that shares some similarities with subsistence settings.
their disadvantages are interconnected, the perceived impor-
We investigate the intersection of various identity categories
tance of these disadvantages differ. Some informants priori-
such as socio-economic status, education level, health, employ-
tize their financial and material needs, yet others are more
ment, and geographical setting in a rural mobile home park in
concerned about the social stigmatization they experience in
the U.S. In addition, we explore the intersection of these
the marketplace. Finally, there are clear moral boundaries
categories vis-à-vis relational and structural mechanisms (e.g.,
among the community members. With the exception of a few
welfare system, healthcare, educational field, and workplace).
informants, these individuals do not socialize with their
neighbors and look down upon them because they believe
they are morally superior than those ‘‘noisy, gossipy people,’’
Implications for Research on Poverty and Subsistence
‘‘drug dealers,’’ and ‘‘junkies.’’ As such, park residents do not
share a communal spirit that might help them form social
Marketplaces
networks and turn their home-based businesses into organized On one hand, the trailer park community is similar to tradi-
communal endeavors. tional subsistence contexts: both types of settings are marked
As they perceive their chances of getting out of the park is by extreme financial deprivation, psycho-social vulnerabilities,
not very high, most of our informants feel like they are ‘‘stuck’’ and social stigmatization. Yet, our findings reveal the heteroge-
and manage the social stigma of living in a trailer park through neous nature of this neighborhood: distinct perceptions of pov-
upward social comparison (Miller and Kaiser 2001). erty along with moral and social boundaries that exist among

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130
the residents present barriers to a shared communal spirit. As
such, this community is different from the ‘‘densely networked
social communities’’ (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010)
where subsistence consumers turn their small-scale, home-
based businesses into communal microenterprises and partici-
pate in the marketing system (Layton 2007).
The macro context in which the trailer park is located clearly
diverges from traditional subsistence contexts as ‘‘1-to-1 inter-
actional marketplaces’’ (Viswanathan, Sridharan, and Ritchie
2010). Unlike consumers in traditional subsistence market-
places where many consumers are indeed ‘‘microenterprise
operators’’ (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010), our trailer
park residents do not live in the context of an informal micro-
enterprise economy. Moreover, the financial and healthcare
systems are becoming ever more demanding in terms of
consumer knowledge, skills and involvement in an advanced
economy like the U.S. (Viswanathan 2011). Accordingly, we
show that it becomes particularly challenging for the margina-
lized to navigate these systems that are based on the assumption
that it is the consumers’ responsibility to take care of their own
medical and financial well-being.
Lastly, we find multiple perceptions of vulnerability even
within a geographically bounded community of a trailer park.
Lakeside community has preexisting characteristics and
conditions (e.g., substandard housing, social stigmatization,
poor health, low income) that affect the type and level of vul-
nerability experienced as a social group. Like Baker, Hunt, and
Rittenburg’s (2007) work within a community after a natural
disaster, our study reveals multiple collective forms of vulner-
ability. We propose an expansion of this collective understand-
ing of vulnerability by investigating communal characteristics
vis-à-vis structural mechanisms.
Future research might benefit from further investigation of
the subjective and local nuances within subsistence markets
(Weidner, Rosa, and Viswanathan 2010). Intersectionality can
offer valuable guidance into the nuances across subgroups
(e.g., different groups within the same social class or ethnicity).
Implications of Intersectionality for Macromarketing and
Public Policy
Macromarketers call for contributions that help guide the cre-
ation of an environment that nurtures fair exchanges for all
(Kotler, Roberto, and Leisner 2006). A fundamental obstacle
in the way of a fair system is the inequitable distribution of
resources and lack of access to fundamental needs such as
healthcare and housing. In order to evaluate justice (or lack
thereof), it is necessary to investigate multiple structural
dimensions and social relational patterns that shape power and
resource distribution.
Exploring multiple experiences of marginalization through
an intersectional lens is particularly helpful from a macromar-
keting perspective as this approach is relevant to quality-of-life
and distributive justice issues (Hill 2005; Layton and Grossbart
2006). We point at the need for just and fair public policies and
intervention programs in order to alleviate the burden of
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Journal of Macromarketing 34(2)
intersecting structural vulnerabilities. Many social policy
oriented practices overlook the intersecting nature of margina-
lization. For instance, within the United Nations system, dis-
crete mechanisms are developed for addressing gender and
race discrimination separately, such as the Conventions on the
Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and all
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (UNTC, 2013).
At the policy level, categorical boundaries are often rigid
and consistently enforced in the larger systems (e.g., welfare,
financial), reinforcing an ‘‘Oppression Olympics’’ (Gopaldas
2013). This results in social groups competing for the title of
the ‘‘most oppressed’’ and the accompanying support and ben-
efits. Researchers as well as policy makers should recognize
that the traditionally used categorizations of social groups
(e.g., class, income, health) are hardly separate entities operat-
ing independently of one another. Instead of assuming clear-cut
boundaries of oppression and supporting one single group (e.g.,
marginally poor, women), policy makers and advocacy groups
should identify their common target groups and collaborate for
their well-being (e.g., identifying the needs of marginally poor
women).
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: ACR/Sheth
Foundation Dissertation Grant Award (winner in the second place in
public purpose category), 2008; AMA Marketing and Society Disser-
tation Award, 2009.
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Author Biographies
Bige Saatcioglu is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Ozyegin Uni-
versity, Istanbul, Turkey. Her research interests include theoretical
and methodological issues in transformative, critical, and interpretive
paradigms and consumer culture theory. She has published in
Advances in International Management, Journal of International
Business Studies, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of
Public Policy & Marketing.
Canan Corus is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Lubin School of
Business, Pace University, New York. Her research focuses on
consumer psychology, consumer health, and vulnerable consumer
populations. She has published in academic journals such as Journal
of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of
Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Consumer Affairs, and Journal
of Public Policy & Marketing.