The major findings of this study include: (1) poverty resulting from being laid-off is the direct reason for help-seeking and help-receiving to take place, and the lived experience of the research participants is the result of their interpretation of the causes of their poverty; (2) the actions of help-seeking and help-receiving are due to the fact that basic needs not being fulfilled and have demonstrated a task-centered characteristic; (3) help-seeking and help-receiving have different meanings, and cultural value is the root of this difference; (4) the research participants' willingness or readiness and their actual practice in seeking and receiving help show a ranking structure. Amongst formal and informal social support systems, the State ranks the first preference while the family and informal social networks are considered to be their second choice. However, in reality they have to resort to depend on informal social networks, they would seek and receive help in an order determined by the relatedness in blood relation and psychological distance; (5) in the transition period of inadequate social security system in China, social solidarity is based on the family which has been the major source of help; (6) the major support of the participants is from family members, relatives, former colleagues, friends who could only provide limited help due to their own limitations in resources and power; (7) participants' idea of the responsibility of the State under the market economy system is the result of their subjective interpretation of their relationship with their family, society and the State under the situation of restricted resources of the family and informal social network; (8) the social and psychological costs arising from help-seeking and help-receiving are found to have derived from their concept of honour and dignity based on traditional Chinese cultural values. / The significance of this study are: (1) it is a break-through from the traditional positivist objective analysis framework and has presented the subjective experience of help-seeking and help-receiving of the impoverished laid-off female workers in China; (2) it has summarized and conceptualized the research participants' help-seeking and help-receiving action as "an experience of Confucianism-Socialism-Communalism ethical practice", and thus provides an analytical framework for the study of help-seeking and help-receiving behaviour in the Chinese context so as to develop indigenous social work theory of helping; (3) it has put forward suggestions to eradicate social exclusion of the impoverished laid-off female workers and improve their social participation in regard to social policy and social welfare services. / Using narrative analysis of the qualitative approach, this study explores and describes the subjective interpretation of the help-seeking and help-receiving experience of 15 impoverished laid-off female workers in urban China. This study reveals how these impoverished women make meanings for their lived experience in the context of drastic social and economic changes in China. / 馬鳳芝. / 呈交日期: 2006年5月. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2006. / 參考文獻(p. 368-403). / Cheng jiao ri qi: 2006 nian 5 yue. / Adviser: Lam Mong Chow. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4337. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2006. / Can kao wen xian (p. 368-403). / Ma Fengzhi.

One of the greatest social injustices is that people who are marginalized experience more illnesses, disability, and shorter lives than those who are more affluent (Benzeval, Judge, and Whitehead, 1995). In this dissertation I critique the notion that health is affected by poverty through primarily material factors. In fact, poor women are systematically excluded from resources and opportunities to pursue their health. This feminist action research project addressed how poverty and exclusion influenced poor women's health, examined how a group of women negotiated their experiences of poverty and health, and developed action strategies to address their shared concerns. For 1 V2 years I worked with a group of 30 poor women and gathered qualitative data from 15 meetings, 32 interviews, and 30 sets of fieldnotes. The women lived in material deprivation and could not afford the most basic living necessities. They felt stereotyped, excluded, and invisible in their every day lives. The stereotype of the "welfare recipient" fueled institutional stigmatization and surveillance. Welfare, health care, and community recreation workers were threatening, withheld important information, and limited the women's access to services through chscriminatory practices and policies. The women had limited access to health-promoting resources, and their interactions with authorities were shaming which negatively influenced their psychosocial health through stress, depression, low self-esteem, and anger. Services that were meant to help them labelled them as poor and hurniliated them. The women's shame, material scarcity, and limited access to resources engendered feelings of lack of control and hopelessness and influenced their health. The women's varied discourses of poverty and health reflected attempts at finding legitimacy in a society that systematically excluded and de-legitimized them. Through their conversations and our feminist action research work together, they uncovered legitimate identities within experiences of poverty and ill-health and advocated action and social change. They cited a "livable" income, accessible health-promoting resources, and redressing stigmatizing practices and policies as changes required to improve their health. These findings confirmed that the social determinants of health must be reframed to better understand the effects of exclusion on poor women's health and that inclusion, respect, and dignity are fundamental conditions for promoting health.

One of the greatest social injustices is that people who are marginalized experience more illnesses, disability, and shorter lives than those who are more affluent (Benzeval, Judge, and Whitehead, 1995). In this dissertation I critique the notion that health is affected by poverty through primarily material factors. In fact, poor women are systematically excluded from resources and opportunities to pursue their health. This feminist action research project addressed how poverty and exclusion influenced poor women's health, examined how a group of women negotiated their experiences of poverty and health, and developed action strategies to address their shared concerns. For 1 V2 years I worked with a group of 30 poor women and gathered qualitative data from 15 meetings, 32 interviews, and 30 sets of fieldnotes. The women lived in material deprivation and could not afford the most basic living necessities. They felt stereotyped, excluded, and invisible in their every day lives. The stereotype of the "welfare recipient" fueled institutional stigmatization and surveillance. Welfare, health care, and community recreation workers were threatening, withheld important information, and limited the women's access to services through chscriminatory practices and policies. The women had limited access to health-promoting resources, and their interactions with authorities were shaming which negatively influenced their psychosocial health through stress, depression, low self-esteem, and anger. Services that were meant to help them labelled them as poor and hurniliated them. The women's shame, material scarcity, and limited access to resources engendered feelings of lack of control and hopelessness and influenced their health. The women's varied discourses of poverty and health reflected attempts at finding legitimacy in a society that systematically excluded and de-legitimized them. Through their conversations and our feminist action research work together, they uncovered legitimate identities within experiences of poverty and ill-health and advocated action and social change. They cited a "livable" income, accessible health-promoting resources, and redressing stigmatizing practices and policies as changes required to improve their health. These findings confirmed that the social determinants of health must be reframed to better understand the effects of exclusion on poor women's health and that inclusion, respect, and dignity are fundamental conditions for promoting health. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate