Cynthia J. Bogard

The Therapeutic Incarceration of Homeless Families

We discovered from a sample of 340 homeless families that services designed to aid them emerged from two, often conflicting, scrambles for resources. Social service providers parlayed public sentiment toward homelessness into service-intensive programs. The homeless took advantage of such programs, not necessarily for the services, but as a way to more quickly get subsidized housing. The result was an unintentional conflict of interest and failed policy. The homeless remained in the program longer than assumed because of a shortage of subsidized housing and because the regimented services ultimately undermined what fragile social networks they had previously devised to survive.

Future employment among homeless single mothers: the effects of full-time work experience and depressive symptomatology.

SUMMARY This study examines the relationship between work and depressive symptomatology for extremely destitute single mothers–mothers who have experiencedan episode of homelessness. Using longitudinal data collected from 294 respondents who became homeless in 1992 and were followed for approximately two years, we find that a history of full-time work is the best predictor of whether a woman will find full-time employment in the aftermath of an episode of homelessness. Even an extensive history of part-time or informal work was not predictive of finding employment after leaving a homeless shelter. A womans level of depressive symptomatology at the onset of homelessness predicted her strategy in dealing with the shelter bureaucracy. Women with full-time work histories who experienced high levels of depressive moods at the onset of a shelter episode were likely to leave the shelter quickly. Those with lower levels of depressive symptomatology stayed and were more likely than others to complete an education or job training program. Both types of women with full-time work histories were more likely than others to find full-time employment after a homeless episode. These findings suggest that policy makers must focus on providing full-time, and not part-time, work for impoverished mothers and take depressive symptomatology into account when offering assistance to homeless mothers.

The rhetoric of domination and its strategic use by homeless mothers

I examine power as it is used by those thought to be among the most powerless women in our society—sheltered homeless women. I first describe homeless shelters as a form of total institution. Next, using evidence from a longitudinal study of sheltered mothers, I demonstrate that homeless women are not passive victims of this total institution. Instead, the structure of shelter life provides homeless women with opportunities for effective action. Homeless women often effectively use strategies based on stereotypical representations of poor welfare mothers to gain resources important to their ongoing survival. Although subtle, this is, I argue, a strategic use of power by these victimized women. These actions maintain a sense of personal efficacy while also helping to secure their most important goal, a permanent place to live. Gaining a home in which to raise their children and protect themselves and their families from the worst ravages of poverty represents a real increase in social power for impoverishe...

Advocacy and Enumeration Counting Homeless People in a Suburban Community

Enumerating or estimating the numbers of homeless people has become an important research activity in the past few decades. The methodologies of almost all efforts to count homeless people have been closely linked to advocacy activities such as providing shelter and food to those in need. Yet the effect of advocacy work on estimating or enumerating homeless populations has not been much examined in the enumeration literature. This work reviews the methodology of enumeration as it has been influenced by the work of advocates both in general terms and through examining the methods used to conduct a study of a suburban homeless population in New York in 1994. Enumeration methods that overtly take local advocacy activities into account can provide an enriched assessment of homelessness as it exists in relation to surrounding structural conditions. In this case, advocacy work actively prevented literal homelessness for most families in the local community.

Good Ol’ Boy Talk versus the Blogosphere in the Case of Former Senator George Allen

The unsuccessful 2006 reelection campaign of then incumbent Republican senator George Allen of Virginia is employed to discuss the emergent role of blogging in political discourse. We analyze reconstructed interactions between weblog and mainstream media coverage to argue that Allens use of the racial slur “macaca” was successfully mobilized by progressive Virginia bloggers to create a negative narrative about Allen that was then picked up and echoed in many mainstream media outlets. In this case study, blogs were used as an important site of civil discourse that increasingly influences mainstream media coverage. Bloggers took advantage of changing mores that make it unseemly for high-level public officials to employ racially insensitive comments and effectively mobilized long-standing dramatic elements of a campaign narrative to shape discourse surrounding this Senate election.

Information They Can Trust: Increasing Youth Voter Turnout at the University

In the 2004 presidential election, perhaps 54% of the nations youngest cohort—dubbed “Generation Next” by some pollsters—cast a vote. This was a substantial increase over the 42% of eligible 18–25-year-olds who voted in the 2000 election (U.S. Census Bureau 2005 ; Pew Center 2007 ). Still, youth voting rates lagged behind the voting rates of those citizens older than 25–66% made their way to the polls on Election Day in 2004 (Lopez, Kirby, and Sagoff 2005 ). It is likely that voting rates will increase in the current youth cohort as they age, as has happened in both the Baby Boomer and Generation X cohorts. But transforming more of the large Generation Next cohort into voters earlier in adulthood could substantially increase democratic participation in upcoming elections and for decades to come, as habits of civic participation developed in youth often last a lifetime (Miller and Shanks 1996 ). Two-thirds of young people now enroll in some form of higher education. Colleges and universities of all types would therefore seem to be natural sites to mount efforts to improve youth voter turnout. And because interest in voting among the youngest adult cohort seems to be on the rise, this would seem to be the time to encourage more of such behavior. But how can institutions of higher learning best promote democratic participation, especially voting?

The Making of Friends and Enemies: Assessing the Determinants of International Identity Construction

As constructivists correctly argue, identities are key to understanding international relations. In this analysis, we examine three historical cases in order to develop a model addressing the question of when elites are able to successfully market a redefinition of both an external actor and themselves to their national publics. All three cases in this pilot study involve the American public being asked to reconceive the identity of, respectively, the Soviet Union following World War II, Germany during the same period, and Europeans at the time of the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion. We examine the history of each of these cases along with the associated elite rhetoric. We then identify five factors that explain why the first two cases turned out to be largely successful efforts at reframing, and why the latter largely did not.

A “Sensibility of the Commons” and Climate Change Adaptive Capacity in Haiti

A sensibility of the commons, defined as a community sentiment of shared, responsible decision-making and action-taking concerning a designated resource , is an essential feature of societies likely to adapt effectively to climate change. Impoverished Haiti provides a tragic counter example and instead is likely to be highly vulnerable to climate instability. Vulnerability is defined as likely impacts plus adaptive capacity. Haiti’s degraded environment and dearth of inclusive institutions is in part responsible for its current vulnerability. Its former slave economy has been followed by an oligarchic extractionist economy leaving little room for developing the social prerequisites of high adaptive capacity societies. These are: empowered citizens, inclusive institutions, a generalized morality wherein all have rights, and a sensibility of the commons and its concomitant social capital.

The Social Fund 20 Years On: Historical and Policy Aspects of Loaning Social Security

Prior studies have documented how deindustrialization poses a bleak outlook for both individuals and their communities: longterm unemployment, elevated poverty, and the erosion of once vital areas. What can people do to mitigate the effects of declining industries that once employed several generations of workers? More importantly, how can collective action help transform society into realizing diverse interests, rather than just a few, narrowly defined interests? Jeremy Brecher’s Banded Together: Economic Democratization in the Brass Valley shares a much-needed account of how such efforts unfold in Western Connecticut’s Naugatuck Valley, a community known for its brass manufacturing since the 1800s. An historian by training, documentarymaker, and resident of Naugatuck Valley for three decades, Brecher conducted over 100 interviews with leaders, staff, and locals for this book. He also conducted archival research and attended over 100 meetings as a participant-observer. The interviews provide the bulk of the data for his case studies of collective action regarding job preservation, job creation, and the construction of affordable housing via more democratic forms of organization. The challenges confronting Naugatuck Valley are depressingly familiar even to the most vibrant of communities and cities: multinational companies take over locallyowned factories and treat these as commodities, rather than as sources of livelihoods and identities, job prospects shift to the poorly-compensated service sector, and longtime renters face rising housing costs as developers deplete the affordable housing stock by converting rental units into condominiums. On the other hand, an influx of new residents poses another challenge that could potentially reinvigorate the community: how to integrate newcomers and incorporate their interests. Rather than relying upon the state or the market to address these issues, Naugatuck Valley residents organized to pursue mutual interests via collectivities run by the community, employees, or residents. Brecher posits that three conditions are necessary for such ‘‘local action’’ and ‘‘democratic economic vision’’—‘‘grassroots organization, democratically controlled enterprises, and supportive public policies’’ (p. xxi). Brecher first recounts how existing organizations, with the help of Ken Gladstone, a community organizer trained in Alinskyite organizing, formed the Naugatuck Valley Project (NVP) in the 1980s. Rather than focusing on one particular project, this ‘‘community alliance’’ has promoted grassroots organizing to revitalize their area. The NVP both formed new ties and built upon existing network ties in the workplace and small businesses, unions, churches and other organizations; this collective identified existing problems and possible solutions. Brecher describes how Gladstone deploys Alinskyite techniques for the unfamiliar ends of economic development—in this community, creating jobs or housing through corporations owned and run by residents. The Alinskyite techniques involve listening to locals to identify issues, selecting possible leaders, and then organizing collectivities to address these issues. These techniques use the power of organized groups—in these cases, residents, and workers—who otherwise have difficulties as individuals eliciting accountability to their interests from the state or their workplaces. The resulting redefined relations help democratize a political process that previously only catered to elite interests. To support his claims, Brecher delves into several case studies to illuminate the challenges, setbacks, and rewards of selforganizing. The first case illustrates how employees need support in honing their selfmanaging skills, but also shares individuals’