Session: Responding to Structural Violence: The Impact of Guaranteed Income across Gender, Race, and Families (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Structural violence is the unequal distribution of resources, such as food, education, housing, and medicine, across social and class strata as actions by the state, a space in which social and economic justice converge. It is exerted systematically by social and economic structures, and is often experienced collectively through forces such as racism, poverty, and socio-economic inequality, thus constricting individuals’ agency. Guaranteed Income (GI) is a policy intervention that may mitigate the impacts of structural violence by impacting individuals’ agency as well as related indirect benefits in healthcare, social service use, and education.

Our findings suggest that GI’s impact on individual and collective agency takes several different forms. By increasing financial stability, it opens up space for individuals and families to take risks, explore possibilities, and respond to challenges. Critically, it also equips them with the ability to move towards goals, such as pursuing new career and educational pathways, or exercising agency in relation to time and the labor market. The mechanism of unconditional cash itself recognizes individuals’ dignity by trusting them to know what’s best for themselves and their families, which in turn changes their relationships to money and to time. These themes are particularly salient when viewed through the lens of gender, race, and family mobility. Capitalistic, patriarchal, and racist systems perpetuate stereotypes and fuel oppressive policies. These have direct impacts on populations that often remain invisible.

The research presented in this symposium uses a blend of social justice-oriented methods that center community voice and take into consideration the place-based nature of structural violence, as resources and inequality vary in degree and nature by community. These methods are collaborative, rooted in community context and developed with community input. They include a critical ethnography of artists receiving GI; a mixed-methods mobile app studying the impact of GI on unpaid caregivers; photovoice and digital storytelling with refugee families; and semi-structured interviews.

Presenters will discuss the impact of structural violence on traditionally marginalized groups, and the ways in which GI mitigates its effects. The research draws from mothers struggling to navigate impossible time demands around unpaid carework, refugee families adjusting to American expectations, artists reckoning with the ripple effects of the murder of George Floyd, and vulnerable families coping with the pressures of late-stage capitalism. Presenters will also illustrate how their research processes within these groups have contributed to change and consciousness-raising at the individual and community level. Finally, presenters will detail the broader implications of findings for social work research, practice, and policy. This research elicits ways in which the field can better support groups that are often invisible, discounted or otherwise marginalized. Data from these pilots challenges overarching societal narratives and stereotypes about caregivers, artists, immigrants, and families. It calls for social work research attuned to inequity and authentically engaged with communities. This body of work underscores the urgency of government policy that not only meets people’s needs, but recognizes their inherent value and potential, thereby tempering the constraints of structural violence.