Suchergebnisse

The devolution of state authority embedded in the 1996 federal welfare reform law (since reaffirmed in the 2006 reauthorization of this law) has enormous implications for economically disadvantaged adults and their families as well as those responsible for the local management and delivery of these welfare services. Although over a decade of welfare reform "impact" research currently exists, the majority of this literature focuses primarily on welfare clients in urban areas. This study identifies service delivery processes in rural areas in an Appalachian state with high levels of poverty and unemployment, limited economic resources for investment and development, and inadequate administrative capacity. Welfare reform affects urban and rural beneficiaries differently. This article highlights (1) the challenges faced by TANF caseworkers who implement welfare reform policies on a daily basis in West Virginia, (2) how these daily practices are heavily influenced by cultural and organization practices, and (3) the "chaining of social problems" found within welfare reform. The data used in this research come from focus groups with approximately eighty caseworkers in West Virginia. Implications for service delivery and public policy are discussed.

Participants in a drug court are subjects in a study that analyzes the relationship between the everyday problems they identify in discussions with the judge and their patterns of recovery, as measured by compliance with program requirements. 130 types of problems mentioned in court revealed that problems generally are those associated with the individuals themselves (e.g., their physical health), their immediate social milieu (e.g., domestic abuse), and the larger social structure in which they negotiate their lives (e.g., acquiring Medicaid benefits). The most frequently mentioned types of problems were "structural" in nature. Patterns of recovery identified in program graduates resulted in labels of "clear sailers," "late bloomers," "occasional stumblers," and "chronic stumblers." A case study of an occasional stumbler reveals some ways in which everyday hassles and her responses to them affected her recovery.

Team-based learning (TBL) is a form of small-group learning that assumes stable teams promote accountability. Teamwork promotes communication among members; application exercises promote active learning. Students must prepare for each class; failure to do so harms their team's performance. Therefore, TBL promotes accountability. As part of the course grade, students assess the performance of their teammates. The evaluation forces students to rank their teammates and to provide rationale for the highest and lowest rankings. These evaluations provide rich data on small-group dynamics. In this paper, we analyze 211 student teammate assessments. We find evidence that teams consistently give the lowest evaluations to their least involved members, suggesting that the team component increases accountability, which can promote learning. From these findings we draw implications about small-group dynamics in general and the pedagogy of TBL in particular.

Sociologists define power as one party's capacity to influence another's action. Thus, power is a relational property of interpersonal interaction. However, its dynamics embed within institutions such as the church and the state. This paper explores power dynamics using a case study of the conflict between an Old Order Amish church and the civil law of Ohio. The church excommunicated a member for violating community rules. The member countered by suing the church in state court. We trace power within and across these spheres of influence, showing how each party defined the situation according to institutional vectors of power. While one might expect the state to possess greater power in this situation, we demonstrate that ultimately neither party had total power, and both lost to some extent. This case study identifies the importance of viewing power as interactional, dynamic, and contextual.

AbstractCongregations depend on their members for their success and survival. Yet there is a lack of research examining congregational retention or exit. Social networks are key to understanding religious group dynamics including retention; however, research on religious communities using network analysis is limited. We use Amish directories to compile longitudinal census data on intracongregational familial ties in our case study. We theorize and find that cohesion is inversely related to congregational size and positively related to retention. We find that splitting congregations reduces cohesion when members central to the network are removed even when congregational size is reduced. The findings may be particularly relevant for understanding retention and group dynamics in small congregations and ethnic congregations in which extended family ties more commonly form the membership base. The results demonstrate the utility of using social network analysis methods to test theoretical predictions drawn from the sociology of religion literature.