Saving the Poor: Contradictory Logics in Asset-Building Discourse

Background and Purpose: The much-heralded anti-poverty strategy of asset-building emphasizes saving and acquiring wealth as a key route out of poverty (as opposed to relying on public assistance). One of the first programs created to support savings and asset accumulation by the poor is Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), which are matched savings accounts that help families save and acquire specific assets, such as a home or a small business. Studies of IDAs focus on three major areas of research: the effects of IDAs on clients’ savings behavior, the effects of the program on clients’ outlook on life, and its long-term impact. What seems to be missing in the literature is a critical analysis of how workers at the frontlines understand and use the discourse surrounding asset-building. This paper fills this lacuna by examining how asset-building discourse is deployed by workers at the frontlines and how it affects their work with clients.

Methods: The research design for this study is a case study of one IDA program operating at a human service agency in a large city in the United States. The study employs discourse analysis as the primary means of interpretation for understanding the case. Findings come from three sources of data: direct observations at the agency, in-depth interviews with workers in the agency, and program-related documents. 49 observations were conducted over the course of a year. Extensive fieldnotes were written at the end of each observation. For the purpose of the interviews, a sample of four workers (n=4) was prepared. The sample included all of the workers in the agency that were involved in the program (including the Agency Head). Program documents included application forms, training materials, grant applications, surveys, and relevant policy memos. Informed by an inductive approach to data analysis, all data were coded thematically with the aid of Nvivo.

Findings: Findings show that asset-building discourse as enacted in this agency setting is fundamentally contradictory: it promotes the idea that the poor can acquire financial literacy to the point of becoming market-savvy entrepreneurs but simultaneously works to discipline the poor to thoughtlessly save out of habit. These two logics are contradictory because a person who saves out of habit, on automatic pilot, is not someone who makes informed and conscious decisions in light of her financial literacy. Findings indicate that the discourse surrounding the IDA program is more about inculcating the habit of saving than about teaching economically rational decision-making.

Conclusion and Implications: Findings suggest that asset-building discourse is consistent with a neoliberal outlook that focuses on disciplining the poor to be market compliant, irrespective of whether participation in market-based activities effectively addresses the challenges of living in poverty. Social workers can build on this research to push for changes in social welfare policies that do not re-inscribe the disciplinary dimensions of asset-building discourse, but lay the groundwork for empowering the poor to combat their poverty on their own terms that are more sensitive to who they are and the obstacles they actually confront.