The Consequences of the Inflation in Everyday Life of Low Class Youths

The inflation is a structural and economic phenomenon that had considerable outcomes at social and action levels. This economic phenomenon can affect persons, emotions, interactions and subjectivity in everyday life, and accordingly, social actors have particular strategies for dealing with these consequences. Our aim in this qualitative study was to explicate the meaning and interpretations of the inflation by low class youths. The research questions were: what is the meaning of inflation for our participants as low class youth? How do they experience and interpret the inflation phenomenon? What is the inflation outcomes from their view of points? And how do they deal with inflation outcomes in their everyday life?

The research was conducted using the basic (generic) qualitative research method (Caelli et al., 2003; Merriam, 2009). This is an interpretative and constructive approach. The authors sought to understand youth constructions about the inflation. Participants included 30 youths (18-29 years old) who were selected by the purposeful sampling method. They lived in a low urban area of Isfahan city in families with poor incomes. The authors conducted interviews and gathered data through semi-structured interviews. Data saturation criteria were used for deciding about the sample size, and the sampling continued until the answers became repetitive and no new concept could be created. Before starting the interviews, the authors collected youth participants’ consent forms. Participants became familiar with the research procedure through the explanation of the research purposes, questions and methods. After each interview, the authors transcribed the interview talks and data analysis started from the first interview. For data analysis, the theoretical coding (Strause & Corbin, 1998) was utilized by three coding levels including open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. During the open coding, interview texts were reviewed and encoded line by line and a concept was assigned for the meaningful phrase of the interviewee talks. In the second level of coding, axial coding, the constructed concepts were put together and were transformed into categories that were more abstract in comparison to primary concepts. At third level of coding, categories were linked together and a core category was emerged as the final category.  The authors tried to achieve a level of credibility in research findings by continues comparisons of participants’ statements and paying attention to their feedbacks regarding the analysis. Additionally, the authors checked the final concepts by the participants that confirmed the constructed concepts and findings.

As mentioned above, interview transcripts were analyzed by the theoretical coding and 7 main categories were constructed. Youths’ experience and interpretation of the inflation was defined in 7 categories including: motivation crisis, early adulthood, the thirst for money, ambiguity and from day to day living, being accustomed, being contented, and interactional anomie. Finally, ‘anomie and ambiguity’ was emerged as the final category. This concepts reflected a strong sense of ambiguity and an anomic mind in the participants’ everyday life. They perceived their life to be unpredictable, and normless with considerable falls of motivations. The inflation and poverty of sources created a money-oriented subjectivity for low class youths. In these situations, money and seeking it came at the center of the life. This is the social condition that some sociologists mentioned as the anomie. The anomie is emerged through crisis and pressures of the inflation. Another dimension of the construction of the inflation was the culture of poverty. The process that was increased by the economic poverty under inflation pressures. The inflation pressed everyday sources and thoroughly suppressed planning about the future as explained by Oscar Lewis. The inflation and expensiveness of goods and services affected mental, social, and cultural life of our youth participants. This can affect developmental values during time periods. Social policy-makers should pay attention to these situations especially by designing a social care system. The strong social security and social care system can reduce some negative consequences of the inflation for youth people.