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Title Race and the politics of welfare reform / edited by Sanford F. Schram, Joe Soss, and Richard C. Fording
Published Ann Arbor : The University of Michigan Press, [2003]

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Description 1 online resource
Series Book collections on Project MUSE
Contents HISTORY -- Race and the limits of solidarity : American welfare state development in comparative perspective / Robert C. Lieberman -- Ghettos, fiscal federalism, and welfare reform / Michael K. Brown -- "Laboratories of democracy" or symbolic politics? : the racial origins of welfare reform / Richard C. Fording -- MASS MEDIA AND MASS ATTITUDES -- How the poor became Black : the racialization of American poverty in the mass media / Martin Gilens -- Race matters : the impact of news coverage of welfare reform on public opinion / James M. Avery and Mark Peffley -- Racial context, public attitudes, and welfare effort in the American states / Martin Johnson -- DISCOURSE -- Queens, teens, and model mothers : race, gender, and the discourse of welfare reform / Holloway Sparks -- Putting a Black face on welfare : the good and the bad / Sanford F. Schram -- POLICY CHOICE AND IMPLEMENTATION -- Hard line and the color line : race, welfare, and the roots of get-tough reform / Joe Soss [and others] -- Contemporary approaches to enduring challenges : using performance measures to promote racial equality under TANF / Susan Tinsley Gooden -- BEYOND WELFARE REFORM : RACE & SOCIAL POLICY IN THE STATES -- Race/ethnicity and referenda on redistributive health care policy / Caroline J. Tolbert and Gertrude A. Steuernagel -- Racial/ethnic diversity and states' public policies : social policies as context for welfare policies / Rodney E. Hero -- COMMENTARY -- Why welfare is racist / Frances Fox Piven
Summary It's hard to imagine discussing welfare policy without discussing race, yet all too often this uncomfortable factor is avoided or simply ignored. Sometimes the relationship between welfare and race is treated as so self-evident as to need no further attention; equally often, race in the context of welfare is glossed over, lest it raise hard questions about racism in American society as a whole. Either way, ducking the issue misrepresents the facts and misleads the public and policy-makers alike. Many scholars have addressed specific aspects of this subject, but until now there has been no single integrated overview. Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform is designed to fill this need and provide a forum for a range of voices and perspectives that reaffirm the key role race has played--and continues to play--in our approach to poverty. The essays collected here offer a systematic, step-by-step approach to the issue. Part 1 traces the evolution of welfare from the 1930s to the sweeping Clinton-era reforms, providing a historical context within which to consider today's attitudes and strategies. Part 2 looks at media representation and public perception, observing, for instance, that although blacks accounted for only about one-third of America's poor from 1967 to 1992, they featured in nearly two-thirds of news stories on poverty, a bias inevitably reflected in public attitudes. Part 3 discusses public discourse, asking questions like "Whose voices get heard and why?" and "What does 'race' mean to different constituencies?" For although "old-fashioned" racism has been replaced by euphemism, many of the same underlying prejudices still drive welfare debates--and indeed are all the more pernicious for being unspoken. Part 4 examines policy choices and implementation, showing how even the best-intentioned reform often simply displaces institutional inequities to the individual level--bias exercised case by case but no less discriminatory in effect. Part 5 explores the effects of welfare reform and the implications of transferring policy-making to the states, where local politics and increasing use of referendum balloting introduce new, often unpredictable concerns. Finally, Frances Fox Piven's concluding commentary, "Why Welfare Is Racist," offers a provocative response to the views expressed in the pages that have gone before--intended not as a "last word" but rather as the opening argument in an ongoing, necessary, and newly envisioned national debate. Sanford Schram is Visiting Professor of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. Joe Soss teaches in the Department of Government at the Graduate school of Public Affairs, American University, Washington, D.C. Richard Fording is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Kentucky
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-368) and indexes
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
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Subject Public welfare -- United States.
Welfare recipients -- Government policy -- United States
Social service and race relations -- United States
Racism -- United States
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Services & Welfare.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Human Services.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Ethnic Studies -- African American Studies.
Public welfare
Racism
Social service and race relations
Welfare recipients -- Government policy
United States
Form Electronic book
Author Schram, Sanford, editor
Soss, Joe, 1967- editor.
Fording, Richard C., 1964- editor.
LC no. 2020707012
ISBN 9780472025510
0472025511
9786612695742
6612695749
1282695746
9781282695740