Daisy Rooks

Learning Interdisciplinarity Service Learning and the Promise of Interdisciplinary Teaching

The authors explore the challenges inherent in traversing the multiple boundaries between sociology and social work, and the academy and the community, by examining a service learning course on hunger and homelessness taught by two sociology professors and two social workers on the staff of a community service organization. The authors draw on instructional team meetings and correspondence, observation of class sessions, and formal and informal course evaluations to analyze three “moments”: the planning process, a pivotal class session, and students’ final presentations. They found that both their teaching and students’ learning were enriched by disciplinary differences in knowledge claims, the design and utility of qualitative research, and the process of drawing conclusions from, and making arguments using, qualitative data. The authors conclude that experiential learning has value beyond providing students hands-on experiences. It can also provide a laboratory in which students and instructors can explore the similarities and differences between sociology, social work, and other disciplines.

Outsiders in the union: organizing, consent, and union recognition campaigns

Abstract Although outsiders have played an important role in social protest in the U.S., outsiders’ role in the U.S. labor movement has been the focus of spirited debate. Debate about outsider organizers, in particular, reached a fevered pitch in the late 1990s, and continues today. This paper scrutinizes two of the core assumptions of this debate: that insider and outsider organizers operate differently on union recognition campaigns, and that workers respond to them differently in these settings. We analyzed 153 in-depth interviews with workers and organizers conducted at the height of the debate, in order to answer two questions: What is the role of outsider organizers during private sector union recognition campaigns, and how do outsider organizers secure workers’ consent in these settings? All of the organizers in our data-set were graduates of the AFL-CIO’s Organizing Institute, and 64 of them were outsiders. The outsider organizers in our data-set confronted barriers that insider organizers did not, including workers’ concerns about their youth, inexperience and lack of professionalism, and their own inability to relate to workers. While many critics of outsider organizers claim that these barriers are insurmountable, we found the opposite to be true. The vast majority of outsider organizers in our data-set successfully secured workers’ consent by demonstrating commitment, building relationships, and being honest and forthright. After proposing changes in organizer training and leadership development in response to these findings, we conclude with a brief discussion of the enduring debate about outsiders’ role in social protest in the U.S.

Bananeras: Women Transforming The Banana Unions of Latin America (review)

employment training system in the United States.” Melendez stated that these “policy shocks” forced many community-based service providers to revamp and engage in partnerships with others in order to survive as organizations and effectively serve their traditional constituents. Much of this book will be of interest primarily to those engaged in workforce development research or service delivery, although two chapters may be of particular interest to unions and labor educators. The first of those describes three union-sponsored programs—the San Francisco Hotels Partnership Project, the District 1199C (National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, AFSCME) Training and Upgrading Fund in Philadelphia, and the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership in Milwaukee—to illustrates how unions collaborated to meet employer needs for well-qualified, skilled workers while also advancing the interests of its members, prospective members, and the union. The other chapter gives examples of corporations that innovatively partnered with community-based service providers to train and place disadvantaged workers in available jobs within their firms—an uncommon, yet effective, demand-side approach. Both chapters suggest ways in which unions can take a proactive role in efforts to link disadvantaged job seekers with good-paying, and even union, jobs. Moreover, unions may enhance their standing in the community by providing services to underserved populations. Both The Disposable American and Communities and Workforce Development offer ideas on ways that unions, and labor educators, can influence both practices and policies affecting worker access to jobs and employment security.

Book Review: Capitalism and Classical Sociological Theory

glimpse into the central debates in sociological theory today. The writing style is clear, the material is accurate, and the tone is engaging. The Thinking Points boxes are useful supplements to the main text, unlike the box features in many texts that seem irrelevant or unnecessary. While not a substitute for materials that offer in-depth coverage of specific theorists and schools of thought, this book could serve as a nice introduction or as a supplement to other readings used in sociology classes. The only significant obstacle for instructors will be in deciding whether it is too advanced for their introductory classes or too elementary for their more advanced students. In the right course, with the right level of student, this book has the potential to engage students and demonstrate the relevance of sociology in today’s social landscape.

Book Review: Early, Steve. Embedded with Organized Labor: Journalistic Reflections on the Class War at Home. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2009. 288 pp.

Coalition seem quaint when compared to the Tea Partiers, birthers, and public employee-haters that populate today’s chattering Right. But that’s nit-picking, really, as the importance of the story of the Charleston 5 stands on its own, and Erem and Durrenberger were diligent and comprehensive in their retelling of it. In the end the real lesson of the Charleston 5 is that workers must build global solidarity to challenge the hegemony of global capital. Both On the Global Waterfront and Solidarity Stories remind us of the importance of democracy as a foundation for worker activism. The ILWU has built an organizational identity around it, while in the ILA only an exceptional leader like Ken Riley can reconstruct it within the confines of a decidedly undemocratic union.

17.95 (paper):

Art Shostak has been a thoughtful documentarian of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike for more than twenty-five years, and I am pleased to be responding to his reflections on the strike. I agree with him that the 1981 strike was a pivotal moment in U.S. labor history and that many lessons can be learned from careful analysis of this event. In his piece, Shostak presents six lessons from the strike, all relating to leadership. While leadership is important indeed, other lessons can and must be extracted from this strike, including the crucial importance of strategy and research, solidarity, militancy, and courting public support.

Hotheads of the World Unite!: A Response to Art Shostak

employment training system in the United States.&dquo; Melendez stated that these &dquo;policy shocks&dquo; forced many community-based service providers to revamp and engage in partnerships with others in order to survive as organizations and effectively serve their traditional constituents. Much of this book will be of interest primarily to those engaged in workforce development research or service delivery, although two chapters may be of particular interest to unions and labor educators. The first of those describes three union-sponsored programs-the San Francisco Hotels Partnership Project, the District 1199C (National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, AFSCME) Training and Upgrading Fund in Philadelphia, and the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership in Milwaukee-to illustrates how unions collaborated to meet employer needs for well-qualified, skilled workers while also advancing the interests of its members, prospective members, and the union. The other chapter gives examples of corporations that innovatively partnered with community-based service providers to train and place disadvantaged workers in available jobs within their firms-an uncom-