Soldiers, mothers, tramps and others: Discourse roles in the 1907 New York City charity directory

The meaning of various categories of poverty during the Progressive Era is analyzed by looking at the ways in which relief organizations in New York City described and treated their clientele. Data come from categorical descriptions of types of eligible clients which were listed in the 1907 edition of the New York City Charity Directory by relief organizations operating in that city. The meaningfulness of different social identities is assessed by looking at similarities in the patterns of treatments that each identity was subjected to. The concept of discourse roles is suggested as a way of analyzing the location of these identities in the moral order. Blockmodel analyses of the data are used to assess the utility of this conceptual approach.