
Joan Maya Mazelis
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About Joan
Mazelis specializes in the study of urban poverty and social support, using qualitative interview methods to explore the meaning and understanding people have of their own situations. Her work focuses on rising inequality, the power of American individualism in perceptions about poor people, the erosion of the public safety net and the importance of the private safety net, and how people both build and avoid social ties with others. She is an affiliated scholar at the Center for Urban Research and Education at Rutgers University-Camden.
Contributions
Give Low-Income Renters More Housing Stability
How to Help America's Poor People Build Community and Assist Each Other
No Jargon Podcast
In the News
Publications
Argues that organizations that serve the needs of poor people can help to create more sustainable supportive ties among them.
Explores how low‐income mothers and fathers who recently have had a child avoid and access financial and other instrumental support from kin, and the statements they make about kin support.
Examines the experiences of people living below the poverty level, looking at the tension between social isolation and social ties among the poor to explore how they survive and the benefits they gain by being connected to one another.
Discusses how the norms of reciprocity partially govern social support behavior, particularly in the context of an organization requiring participation in an exchange network. Examines how reciprocity fosters social capital for those who fulfill norms of reciprocity and hinder social capital for those who violate them.