Digital Commons Network^™

The Culture-Structure Framework: Beyond The Cultural Competence Paradigm, Mimi E. Kim

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article provides a framework for understanding the distinctions between culture and structure in its application to the human services. Using intimate partner violence (IPV) as a case study, this article builds upon the contributions of intersectionality, which was first introduced as a critique of white-dominated IPV interventions. It also follows the development of the concept of cultural competence to demonstrate the ways in which it both opened opportunities to discuss cultural differences but also suppressed the analysis of racialized hierarchies of power, which are often muted by the elevation of culture over race. Finally, this article proposes a general …

Mn Food (In)Security: Are Anti-Hunger Interventions In The Twin Cities Perpetuating Food Insecurity And Poverty?, Emma Kiley

Departmental Honors Projects

While anti-hunger organizations across the nation have been doing important work to address this issue, we have yet to see a significant decrease in food insecurity or poverty. This project uses a literature review and interviews with Twin Cities anti-hunger organizations to answer the following questions: How are anti-hunger interventions and the root causes of food insecurity mismatched? And what would it look like if anti-hunger organizations who are heavily engaged in the ‘feeding movement’ shifted their understanding to see food insecurity as a symptom of poverty, rather than an isolated issue? Working through themes of food charity models, privatized …

Tribal Governance In American Indian Country, Terry E. Mcdonald

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Public Administrators seek to synthesize, comprehend, and clarify challenging problems of social progress as it relates to the administration of public services. We must, therefore, think about all forms of governance to have a comprehensive understanding of the discipline. If civilization ignored the prehistory of the past 600 million years, from the Late Precambrian Era through the Mesozoic, there would be a consequential loss of knowledge. A comprehensive understanding would be absent regarding one of the fundamentals in our evolution – life's ability to avoid demise by symbiosis and adaptation. In the same way, we may have overlooked an essential …

Building The Case For Culturally Specific P-3 Strategies In Oregon: Listening To Voices From The Field, Callie H. Lambarth, Amanda Cross-Hemmer, Lorelei Mitchell, Beth L. Green, Kate Normand

Early Childhood

Oregon’s early learning and K-12 systems require transformative changes to address racial disparities in school readiness and success. Prenatal-through-Grade-3 (P-3) initiatives are an innovative way to align, strengthen and expand supports for this goal.

Culturally specific organizations (CSOs) are uniquely poised and expertly prepared to meet the needs of communities of color while helping Oregon achieve its goals for reducing disparities in kinder­garten readiness and other educational outcomes.

The proposed Early Childhood Equity Fund, which is included in the governor’s recommended 2019 budget, would move Oregon closer to eliminating the opportunity gap in kindergarten readiness and school success by investing …

Law Students' Perspectives On Interdisciplinary Education: A Qualitative Study, Kellie Lockemer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore law school students’ perspectives on interdisciplinary social work education. For this qualitative study, a purposive sample of current law students (n = 11) were invited to participate in a survey to give their perspectives on their current education and thoughts on interdisciplinary education. The results showed that, although the clinic work was helpful, most law students did not think traditional law classes helped prepare them for client interactions. The students also expressed an openness and desire for more trainings on client interactions. This study’s findings suggest a need for interdisciplinary trainings to …

Reconciliation: Facilitating Ethical Space Between Indigenous Women And Girls Of A Drum Circle And White, Settler Men Of A Police Chorus, Kelly Laurila

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to seek understanding of how a singing partnership between Indigenous women and girls of a drum circle and white, Settler men of a police chorus (i.e., representing public relations for Waterloo Regional Police Services)^[1] has been sustained within a local context for five years. Knowing the historical and ongoing colonial systemic violence in policing practices with Indigenous peoples in Canada, it seems unlikely that such a partnership would take place. Song provided this partnership with a bridge for engagement and a means to disrupt enduring perceptions of one another that have fuelled …

Hooking In, Activating And Extending: An Institutional Ethnography Of The Family Violence Project Of The Waterloo Region, Ian Degeer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Domestic violence (DV) is a significant social issue requiring a thoughtful and dedicated response. At present, many social service agencies and governmental bodies have a responsibility to provide a response to DV. Increasingly, innovative service delivery models are being used to construct more coherent responses to the violence. One such model, originates from the United States is entitled the Family Justice Centre model. This model of service delivery consists of the agencies responding to DV residing within the same building. The goal of this model is to improve the access to service for victims and to improve collaborative efforts between …

Exploring The Personhood And Citizenship Of Persons With Disabilities Among Konkombas In Rural Ghana, Festus Moasun

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are susceptible to various forms of mistreatments, particularly in the developing world, such that their personhoods are called to question. It was for this purpose that I set out to explore the personhood and citizenship of PWDs in rural Ghana. I used the constructivist paradigm in addition to the personhood and critical disability theories to guide the study which was conducted using an interpretive phenomenological research approach. To make the findings of the study participant driven, semi-structured interviews were held with PWDs. The findings revealed personhood to be perceived in a rank order of three semi-fluid …

Homelessness Count Methodologies Literature Review, Jennifer Lee-Anderson

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This literature review on homeless count methods provides a brief history of homelessness in the U.S., an account of count efforts, and an overview of methods used. It illustrates that no method is capable of providing a comprehensive count of the homeless, and all methods have inherent disadvantages that often rely upon flawed assumptions. The practical impact of these counts on policy is substantial. Therefore, this review should encourage discussion as to what data communities need for policy and program development and implementation, and whether homeless counts actually fulfill this need.

Sexual Healing: How Racialized Black Males Use Sex To Cope With Stress, Loss And Separation, Allen Lipscomb

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

While the behaviors of Black males are widely studied and often pathologized, their internal, subjective experiences are frequently absent from contemporary research. Utilizing a qualitative research methodology, this study explores the lived experiences of Black males, focusing on sexuality as a coping strategy within the context of loss, separation and stress. A non-clinical sample of 33 Black male participants was identified using snowball and purposeful sampling via social media and word-of-mouth. The findings provide considerable insight regarding the needs of Black men navigating the vicissitudes of loss and stress. In addition, the data endorses deconstruction of the Black male masculine …

Multiplicative Advantages Of Hispanic Men Living In Hispanic Enclaves: Intersectionality In Colon Cancer Care, Keren M. Escobar, Mollie Sivaram, Kevin M. Gorey

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

We examined Hispanic enclave paradoxical effects on cancer care among socioeconomically vulnerable people in pre-Obamacare California. We conducted a secondary analysis of a historical cohort of 511 Hispanic and 1,753 non-Hispanic white people with colon cancer. Hispanic enclaves were neighborhoods where 40% or more of the residents were Hispanic, mostly first-generation Mexican American immigrants. An interaction of ethnicity, gender and Hispanic enclave status was observed such that the protective effects of living in a Hispanic enclave were larger for Hispanic men, particularly married Hispanic men, than women. Risks were also exposed among other study groups: the poor, the inadequately insured, …

Unwed Motherhood, Adoption Reunion And Stigmatized Social Identities, Karen R. March

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Abstract

Data gathered from semi-structured interviews with 33 reunited birth mothers show they had been stigmatized for their unwed motherhood and hid this identity to protect self from social censure. The public exposure created by reunion contact with their adult placed children required new ways to manage this stigma trait. The women engaged in a process of identity talk supported by their understanding of altered perceptions of female sexuality and a “no choice” discourse that drew upon historical changes in the social position of unwed mothers. This identity talk increased their self-efficacy by providing stronger control over their presentation of …

Housing Cost Burden And Maternal Stress Among Very Low Income Mothers, Kaycee L. Bills, Stacia Michelle West, Jami Hargrove

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As the affordable housing shortage proliferates, more American households struggle with high housing cost burdens. Grounded in Belsky’s (1984) parenting stress framework, we use a weighted low-income sample from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study of mothers who rent their homes (N=388) to investigate a relationship between housing cost burden, or paying a substantial portion of income toward housing, and higher rates of reported maternal stress. Findings of the linear regression indicate that younger mothers and those paying 30% or more of their income each month toward rent have higher reported maternal stress scores. These findings are discussed with …

From The Empire State To The North Star State: Voter Engagement In The 2016 Election, Katharine M. Hill, Shannon R. Lane, Jenna Powers, Tanya Rhodes Smith

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Voter engagement has the potential to be a fundamental part of social work practice and key to the professional socialization of social work students. This article describes a classroom-based voter engagement project conducted in two undergraduate social work programs in different U.S. states with significantly different voting laws. We describe the rationale, process of implementing the project, evaluation, and review the results in the context of the 2016 election. We suggest future research that can help develop best practices and methods for implementation of voter engagement in social work practice and education in the future.

Myth Or Reality? Exploring Intergenerational Social Assistance Participation In Ontario, Canada, Tracy A. Smith-Carrier, Amber Gazso, Stephanie Baker Collins, Carrie Smith

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Is there an intergenerational causal link in social assistance (SA) participation? There is a dearth of research addressing this question, yet the discourse of ‘welfare dependency’ is hegemonic. The limited research that does attempt to tease out a causal link in intergenerational SA participation remains equivocal. Qualitative research is largely absent in welfare scholarship; research that might provide a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics underlying SA receipt. We employ an inductive qualitative analysis, using procedures from grounded theory, to understand SA participants’ experiences and perspectives on intergenerational SA usage. We find that the two causal mechanisms underlying intergenerational SA …

Review Of Combating Poverty: Quebec's Pursuit Of A Distinctive Welfare State Axel Van Den Berg, Charles Plante, Hicham Raiq, Christine Proulx, And Sam Faustmann, Jaewon Lee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Axel Van Den Berg, Charles Plante, Hicham Raiq, Christine Proulx, and Sam Faustmann, Combating Poverty: Quebec’s Pursuit of a Distinctive Welfare State. University of Toronto Press (2017), 232 pages, $37.50 (hardcover).

Review Of The High Cost Of Good Intentions: A History Of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs. John F. Cogan, James Midgley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

John F. Cogan, The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs. Stanford University Press (2018), 500 pages, $45.00 (hardcover).

Review Of The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life. Donald L. Rosentein And Justin M. Yopp, Anao Zhang

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Donald L. Rosenstein and Justin M. Yopp, The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life. Oxford University Press (2017), 190 pages, $17.95 (hardcover).

Review Of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade Of Changing The World. Anand Giridharadas, Daniel Liechty

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. Knopf (2018), 288 pages, $26.95 (hardcover).

Crime And Mental Health Problems In Norway - A Zero-Sum Game?, Dag Leonardsen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Through a historical overview, the author analyses the Norwegian welfare society and the limits of a social-engineering approach to social problems. While economic growth and welfare benefits expanded for many years, so did registered crime and mental problems. This paradox gives a justification for challenging established ways of thinking about social prevention policies. Since the turn of the century, crime figures have decreased while the state of mental health has worsened. The author argues that if the price of the suppression of crime is the depression of mind, then the gains are indeed pyrrhic.

Understanding Appalachian Microaggression From The Perspective Of Community College Students In Southern West Virginia, Karen T. Cummings-Lilly, Shandra S. Forrest-Bank

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The term "Appalachian" is wrongly understood to represent a single culture of rural White poverty (Keefe, 2005). This conception contains stereotypical images that obscure hardships many rural White Central Appalachians face. Similar to other oppressed minorities in the U.S., what it means to be Appalachian is a social construction based on what differs them from the White hegemony. Recent scholarship on discrimination recognizes the importance of microaggression, small insults and slights experienced frequently by people from minority groups (Sue, et. al., 2007). Microaggression may be an especially insidious mechanism in the oppression of Appalachian people, since the derogatory stereotypes …

Durkheim’S Greatest Blunder, Stephen M. Marson, J. Porter Lillis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In describing fatalism in Suicide, Durkheim executes two blunders. The first can be categorized in errors of commission while the second should be included in errors of omission. In the error of commission area, he hypothesizes two platforms for existence of fatalistic suicide. Without employing theory-embedded data, he contends that infertility is a catalyst for fatalistic suicidal. Later, he asserts that slavery is fertile soil for fatalistic suicide. Although there is suicidal data in these two arenas, a closer inspection demonstrates that these are not characteristics of fatalistic suicide. For errors of omission, he failed to systematically observe …

Review Of Empowerment Of Women For Promoting Global Health And Quality Of Life. Snehendu B. Kar, Abbie Nelson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Snehendu B. Kar, Empowerment of Women for Promoting Global Health and Quality of Life. Oxford University Press (2018), 595 pages, $69.95 (hardcover).

Review Of Serving The Stigmatized: Working Within The Incarcerated Environment. Wesley T. Church Ii And David W. Springer, Carolyn Sutherby

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Wesley T. Church II and David W. Springer (Eds.), Serving the Stigmatized: Working Within the Incarcerated Environment. Oxford University Press (2018), 400 pages, $74.00 (hardcover).

Review Of Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Genders And Relationships In A Digital Era. Rob Cover, Melinda Mccormick

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Rob Cover, Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Genders and Relationships in a Digital Era. Routledge (2019), 164 pages, $42.95 (paperback).

Review Of Inside Story: How Narratives Drive Mass Harm. Lois Presser, Olivia Marie Mclaughlin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Lois Presser, Inside Story: How Narratives Drive Mass Harm. University of California Press (2018), 200 pages, $85 (hardcover), $29.95 (paperback).

Review Of Social Investment And Social Welfare: International And Critical Perspectives. James Midgley, Espen Dahl, And Amy Conley Wright, David Androff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

James Midgley, Espen Dahl, and Amy Conley Wright (Eds.), Social Investment and Social Welfare: International and Critical Perspectives. Edward Elgar Publishing (2017), 272 pages. $135.00 (hardcover).

Social Construction, Knowledge Utilization, And The Politics Of Poverty: A Case Study Of Washington State’S General Assistance Reform, Yu-Ling Chang

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper addresses a gap in welfare reform literature by investigating the social constructions of poor people in state policymaking within the context of diminishing General Assistance (GA) after the Great Recession. Using Social Construction and Policy Design Theoryand thematic content analysis of Washington State’s legislative archives, I found that the negative constructions of GA recipients as deviants with undesired psychological and behavioral problems were associated with the reform direction toward a regulated, punitive model. These constructions, intersecting with the ideologies of personal responsibility and work ethic, contribute to the dismantling of the social safety net for the Washington’s poorest …

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 46 No. 2

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Gender, Social Networks, And Microenterprise: Differences In Network Effects On Business Performance, Seon Mi Kim

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article aims to find if female micro-entrepreneurs have different social networks that affect their business performance from males. This article uses the longitudinal Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamic (PSED) II data set (2005-2011) in the U.S. The key finding is that even in cases where female micro-entrepreneurs gained the same number of weak ties and resources from their networks as their male counterparts, their weak ties and gained resources did not help them to improve their business performance unlike their male counterparts. Implications for Microenterprise Development Programs and future studies are informed.