Ellen Garnett Kladky

In Appalachia, civic programs that aim to assist un- and underemployed people have linked financial stability to family structure, emphasizing marriage as key to household financial responsibility and economic success. In southern West Virginia, where this research project is based, the massive reduction in stable employment opportunities has made the core elements of household financial success (like homeownership and retirement savings) both more necessary and more difficult to obtain for working-class families. This research project investigates the way that both non-profit- and church-run family and financial courses shape (or fail to shape) participants’ household financial decisions and their intimate relationships. It asks how social class affects the family life and economic decision-making of households that participate in these courses and ultimately seeks to better understand how economic change (and the programs that seek to ameliorate it) shapes understandings of kinship.