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Review Of Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court And The Constitution. Laurence Tribe And Joshua Matz. Reviewed By Margaret Burnham, Margaret A. Burnham

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz, Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution. Henry Holt & Co. (2014), 416 pages, $32.00 hardcover.

Introduction To The Special Issue: New Scholarship In Institutional Ethnography, Paul C. Luken, Suzanne Vaughan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Twelve years ago the Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare (JSSW) published a special issue devoted to institutional ethnography, “Institutional Ethnography: Theory and Practice” (Winfield, 2003). This alternative sociology, founded by Dorothy E. Smith, begins from the standpoint of the experiences of particular, active subjects and sets out to discover and describe the social relations shaping those experiences (Smith, 1987, 2005, 2006). JSSW, dedicated to publishing new, cutting-edge theoretical and methodological articles, was the first academic journal to devote a special issue to this new mode of inquiry used to investigate the social world. Over the ensuing years, the number …

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 42 No. 2 (June 2015)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE: NEW SCHOLARSHIP IN INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY Paul C. Luken and Suzanne Vaughan

CAPTURED BY CARE: AN INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY ON THE WORK OF BEING IN A REHABILITATION PROCESS IN NORWAY Janne Paulsen Breimo

A SERVICE DISPARITY FOR RURAL YOUTH: THE ORGANIZATION OF SOCIAL SERVICES ACROSS THE URBAN YOUTH CENTRE AND ITS RURAL BRANCH Jessica Braimoh

CATEGORIES OF EXCLUSION: THE TRANSFORMATION OF FORMERLY INCARCERATED WOMEN INTO "ABLE-BODIED ADULTS WITHOUT DEPENDENTS" IN WELFARE PROCESSING Megan Welsh

INTERROGATING THE RULING RELATIONS OF THAILAND'S POST-TSUNAMI RECONSTRUCTION: EMPIRICALLY TRACKING SOCIAL RELATIONS IN THE ABSENCE OF CONVENTIONAL TEXTS Aaron Williams …

Captured By Care: An Institutional Ethnography On The Work Of Being In A Rehabilitation Process In Norway, Janne I. Paulsen Breimo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Norwegian rehabilitation policies and new public management reforms share some features and are divided by others. The features that divide them are so contradictory that they create difficulties for people who are in a process of rehabilitation. Having studied the everyday life of people being in a process of rehabilitation, I argue that the continuous change in organizational structures in general makes the processes hard to endure for service users, specifically the reforms characterized by neoliberalism, because they, to a large extent, contradict the holistic rehabilitation ideology. This further illuminates the paradox that the greater and more complicated the …

A Service Disparity For Rural Youth: The Organization Of Social Services Across The Urban Youth Centre And Its Rural Branch, Jessica Braimoh

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Drawing on 14 interviews with services providers and over 80 hours of participant observations, I examine what happens when young people enter into Employment Service, a program of Employment Ontario and the Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities. This program is delivered through an organization operating in two sites in Ontario, Canada that I refer as the Urban Youth Centre and the Rural Branch. On paper, it looks like service providers are doing the same work across these sites because the organization as a whole uses the same intake texts to deliver this program and documents the same institutionally imposed …

Interrogating The Ruling Relations Of Thailand’S Post-Tsunami Reconstruction: Empirically Tracking Social Relations In The Absence Of Conventional Texts, Aaron Williams, Janet Rankin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper discusses methodological strengths and challenges in doing institutional ethnographic (IE) research in communities devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Southern Thailand. IE is a mode of inquiry used to describe institutional mechanisms of reconstruction, aid, and recovery and to show how recovery efforts affected real people and communities over time. The chaotic nature of a disaster zone, combined with the more common difficulties of conducting research in a developing region relying on a translator, posed various challenges in the conduct of this IE study. Textual data, one of the important tools used in IE research, were …

(Un)Safe At School: Parents' Work Of Securing Nursing Care And Coordinating School Health Support Services Delivery For Children With Diabetes In Ontario Schools, Lisa Watt

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Using institutional ethnography and its approach to mapping institutional sequences (Smith, 2005; Turner, 2006), this paper examines the social organization of School Health Support Services (SHSS) for children with diabetes in Ontario schools. The inquiry starts with my own situated experience as a mother of a child with diabetes starting kindergarten, and the trouble of securing the health supports necessary to care for my child’s health and safety while she is at school. The paper takes up two specific texts—the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) Referral Form and the CCAC Medical Orders for Services at School—to explore and describe how …

Towards An Institutional Counter-Cartography Of Nurses’ Wound Work, Nicola Waters

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Under the banner of continuous quality improvement, process mapping has become an increasingly routine feature of healthcare administration. Driven by demands to improve efficiency through standardization, nurses’ knowledge of their often-unpredictable work is routinely changed to fit within graphical representations that depict it as objectively controllable. Tensions that arose as I attempted to apply my knowledge as a specialist nurse in the rapidly changing area of outpatient wound clinics formed the direction for my institutional ethnography (IE) inquiry. As a student new to IE, I encountered challenges as I tried to explain to my informants how Dorothy Smith’s alternative sociology …

Review Of This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. The Climate. Naomi Klein. Reviewed By Sheila D. Collins., Sheila Collins

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. (2014). Simon & Schuster. $30 (hardcover), 576 pages.

Review Of The Black Power Movement And American Social Work. Joyce Bell. Reviewed By Wilma Peebles-Wilkins., Wilma Peebles-Wilkins

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Joyce Bell, The Black Power Movement and American Social Work. (2014). Columbia University Press. $50.00 (hardcover), 256 pages.

Review Of It's Not Like I'M Poor: How Working Families Make Ends Meet In A Post-Welfare World. Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Kathryn Edin, Laura Tach, & Jennifer Sykes. Reviewed By Vanessa D. Wells, Vanessa Wells

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Sarah Halpern-Meekin, Kathryn Edin, Laura Tach, & Jennifer Sykes, It’s Not Like I’m Poor: How Working Families Make Ends Meet in a Post-Welfare World. (2015). University of California Press. $29.95 (paperback), 304 pages.

Review Of Flawed System/Flawed Self: Job Searching And Unemployment Experiences. Ofer Sharone. Reviewed By Randall P. Wilson, Randall Wilson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Ofer Sharone, Flawed System/Flawed Self: Job Searching and Unemployment Experiences. (2013). University of Chicago Press. $85 (hardcover), $27.50 (paperback), 240 pages.

Review Of Becoming Bureaucrats: Socialization At The Front Lines Of Government Service. Zachary W. Oberfield. Reviewed By Edward U. Murphy, Edward U. Murphy

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Zachary W. Oberfield, Becoming Bureaucrats: Socialization at the Front Lines of Government Service. (2014). University of Pennsylvania Press. $59.95 (hardcover), 236 pages.

Review Of Out In The Union: A Labor History Of Queer America. Miriam Frank. Reviewed By Ann S. Holder., Ann S. Holder

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Miriam Frank, Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America. (2014). Temple University Press. $54.50 (hardcover), $29.95 (paperback), 240 pages.

An Examination Of The New York State Workers' Compensation Reform Act Of 2007, Julia Ostrov

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Workers' compensation, a critical safety net for injured and ill workers in the form of medical care and wage replacement benefits, emerged on the heels of the Industrial Revolution as the first extensive social insurance program in the United States. Over the past two decades, workers' compensation policy in New York State has followed a national trend of severe retrenchment in benefits to workers. This paper takes as its focus an examination of the most recent workers' compensation reform legislation in New York, and provides a discussion of the important role social workers can play in promoting social justice within …

Reframing New Frontiers For Indigenous Peoples, Hilary N. Weaver

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper examines colonial and Indigenous perspectives on frontiers. The United States context is used to further focus on the historic impact of the frontier on Native Americans. This is followed by a discussion of how boundaries and frontiers might be reframed in more balanced ways that respect the sovereignty of Indigenous nations. Examples are presented from child welfare and casino gaming to illustrate contemporary interactions across boundaries.

Social Work Advocacy: Professional Self-Interest And Social Justice, Mary Ellen Brown, Michelle M. Livermore, Annahita R. Ball

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study employed an analysis of the advocacy-related resources and materials available through the 50 NASW state chapter websites. Results revealed that a large number of states had no information about advocacy on their websites (42%). One third of the mission statements reviewed contained language indicating that advocacy was part of the chapter mission, while nearly as many included no content related to advocacy or social justice on their homepages. Nearly two thirds of the websites contained no resources, tools or links to help with advocacy practice, promotion or education. Thirteen advocacy themes emerged, which represented policy issues within the …

Who's Left Out: Characteristics Of Households In Economic Need Not Receiving Public Support, Vincent A. Fusaro

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American welfare state is often referred to as a social safety net, yet many in economic need do not receive public benefits. This article examines the characteristics of low-income households in the United States that do not participate in any of several public cash or near-cash support programs. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 2008 panel—a representative sample of U.S. households—households below the federal poverty threshold but not participating in any of eleven different income support programs were identified. Over a third (38.02%) of households in poverty did not receive any assistance from the examined programs. …

Applying Sen's Capability Approach To Understand Work And Income Among Poor People In India, Mahasweta M. Banerjee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Applying Sen's capability approach, this paper explores income poor individuals' capabilities—abilities, skills, resources, and opportunities at personal, inter-personal, and structural levels—for work and income. It reports on data collected from 92 individuals identified through purposive sampling and interviewed face-to- face. The study found that 11% of respondents had varied work capabilities and earned a relatively high income; 49% of respondents had some work capabilities and were in the medium income bracket; 40% of respondents had few work capabilities and remained below the poverty line; and 8% of respondents with even fewer work capabilities were not working. Implications include expansion of …

Relationship-Based Justice For Gender Responsive Specialty Courts, Margaret H. Lloyd

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Family drug courts (FDCs) have existed in the U.S. since 1994. Since that time, dozens of studies have found evidence that FDCs improve child welfare outcomes compared to traditional dependency courts. The level of sophistication of this research has stalled, however, arguably because the theoretical foundations of the approach are underdeveloped. The social psychological theory of procedural justice can predict and explain outcomes in treatment courts better than therapeutic jurisprudence. However, in light of evidence suggesting that gender impacts treatment court outcomes, procedural justice alone falls short as the mechanism of change in family drug courts, because women constitute the …