生命危机与阶层危机——对美国中镇一个中产阶级家庭的个案研究

基于对美国中镇一个中产阶级家庭居家临终关怀的参与观察,在生命危机的特殊语境下,从家庭层面呈现当下美国中西部“铁锈带”中产阶级的生活状况。当下美国社会的中产阶级危机不仅是特定文化或者宏观政治、社会或经济政策的后果,更是个体化的、缺乏资产和其他依托的中产阶级自身脆弱性的必然结果。生命危机和阶层危机叠加之下,平时无法被轻易感受到的、作为一种长期趋势的中产阶级的脆弱性,呈现得更为明显。

Life-Crisis and Stratum Crisis:A Case Study of an American Middle-Class Family

Based on participant observation of home hospice practice in a middle-class family in Middletown,in the special context of life-crisis at the family level,this article presents the living conditions of the middle-class in the Rust Belt of the Midwest of the United States.It points out that the crisis of the American middle-class is not only the result of a specific culture or macro political,social or economic policies,but also the inevitable result of the vulnerability of individualized middle class who have little capital and other support.Under the combination of life-crisis and stratum crisis,the vulnerability of the middle class,which cannot be easily perceived as a long-term trend,becomes more obvious.