Discipline & Caring: The Cultural Politics of Youth Work

This dissertation examines the cultural politics and social conflicts that have and continue to shape the relations and practices of youth work. Based on ethnographic participant-observation and interviews in a non-profit alternative school and a for-profit day treatment program, I describe how youth workers in Alston, North Carolina, negotiate relationships with young people, their co-workers, and the uneven social contexts of their work through contested and culturally informed understandings of what should be done about troubled or at-risk youth. Using discourse analyses of public hearing transcripts, policy statements, media accounts, and youth work literature, and an examination of the cultural history of social-work, this research situates the local contentious practice of youth workers in Alston within ongoing social struggles in the United States and capitalism at-large. These struggles and conflicts involve the role of the state in relation to the market economy, the social distribution of resources, and the conduct of social welfare and control. I examine these struggles as they emerged through and shaped the character of youth work in both the 19th century child saving movement and in the neoliberal privatization and withdrawal of the state at the close of the 20th century. Historical and ethnographic analyses illustrate how these conflicts not only concern the substance of youth work, but also social divisions and inequalities including the gendered implications of social labor, the moral valuation of poverty, crime, and violence, and the relationship of these to racial, ethnic, and class difference. Drawing on social practice theory and the idea that the language and practices workers express are shaped by their history-in-person, this dissertation describes how youth workers employed varying rhetorical narratives of professionalism and what I call organic expertise to define youth and the moral conduct of youth work. Finally, I consider how the cultural resources workers bring to practice converge with the conditions of their labor to shape what they actually do with young people

Occupational segregation, gender essentialism and male primacy as major barriers to equity in HIV/AIDS caregiving: Findings from Lesotho

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gender segregation of occupations, which typically assigns caring/nurturing jobs to women and technical/managerial jobs to men, has been recognized as a major source of inequality worldwide with implications for the development of robust health workforces. In sub-Saharan Africa, gender inequalities are particularly acute in HIV/AIDS caregiving (90% of which is provided in the home), where women and girls make up the informal (and mostly unpaid) workforce. Men's and boy's entry into HIV/AIDS caregiving in greater numbers would both increase the equity and sustainability of national and community-level HIV/AIDS caregiving and mitigate health workforce shortages, but notions of gender essentialism and male primacy make this far from inevitable.</p> <p>In 2008 the Capacity Project partnered with the Lesotho Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in a study of the gender dynamics of HIV/AIDS caregiving in three districts of Lesotho to account for men's absence in HIV/AIDS caregiving and investigate ways in which they might be recruited into the community and home-based care (CHBC) workforce.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study used qualitative methods, including 25 key informant interviews with village chiefs, nurse clinicians, and hospital administrators and 31 focus group discussions with community health workers, community members, ex-miners, and HIV-positive men and women.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Study participants uniformly perceived a need to increase the number of CHBC providers to deal with the heavy workload from increasing numbers of patients and insufficient new entries. HIV/AIDS caregiving is a gender-segregated job, at the core of which lie stereotypes and beliefs about the appropriate work of men and women. This results in an inequitable, unsustainable burden on women and girls. Strategies are analyzed for their potential effectiveness in increasing equity in caregiving.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>HIV/AIDS and human resources stakeholders must address occupational segregation and the underlying gender essentialism and male primacy if there is to be more equitable sharing of the HIV/AIDS caregiving burden and any long-term solution to health worker shortages. Policymakers, activists and programmers must redress the persistent disadvantages faced by the mostly female caregiving workforce and the gendered economic, psychological, and social impacts entailed in HIV/AIDS caregiving. Research on gender desegregation of HIV/AIDS caregiving is needed.</p

Occupational segregation, gender essentialism and male primacy as major barriers to equity in HIV/AIDS caregiving: Findings from Lesotho

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gender segregation of occupations, which typically assigns caring/nurturing jobs to women and technical/managerial jobs to men, has been recognized as a major source of inequality worldwide with implications for the development of robust health workforces. In sub-Saharan Africa, gender inequalities are particularly acute in HIV/AIDS caregiving (90% of which is provided in the home), where women and girls make up the informal (and mostly unpaid) workforce. Men's and boy's entry into HIV/AIDS caregiving in greater numbers would both increase the equity and sustainability of national and community-level HIV/AIDS caregiving and mitigate health workforce shortages, but notions of gender essentialism and male primacy make this far from inevitable.</p> <p>In 2008 the Capacity Project partnered with the Lesotho Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in a study of the gender dynamics of HIV/AIDS caregiving in three districts of Lesotho to account for men's absence in HIV/AIDS caregiving and investigate ways in which they might be recruited into the community and home-based care (CHBC) workforce.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study used qualitative methods, including 25 key informant interviews with village chiefs, nurse clinicians, and hospital administrators and 31 focus group discussions with community health workers, community members, ex-miners, and HIV-positive men and women.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Study participants uniformly perceived a need to increase the number of CHBC providers to deal with the heavy workload from increasing numbers of patients and insufficient new entries. HIV/AIDS caregiving is a gender-segregated job, at the core of which lie stereotypes and beliefs about the appropriate work of men and women. This results in an inequitable, unsustainable burden on women and girls. Strategies are analyzed for their potential effectiveness in increasing equity in caregiving.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>HIV/AIDS and human resources stakeholders must address occupational segregation and the underlying gender essentialism and male primacy if there is to be more equitable sharing of the HIV/AIDS caregiving burden and any long-term solution to health worker shortages. Policymakers, activists and programmers must redress the persistent disadvantages faced by the mostly female caregiving workforce and the gendered economic, psychological, and social impacts entailed in HIV/AIDS caregiving. Research on gender desegregation of HIV/AIDS caregiving is needed.</p

Occupational Segregation, gender essentialism and male primacy as major barriers to equity in HIV care giving: Findings from Lesotho

Abstract Background Gender segregation of occupations, which typically assigns caring/nurturing jobs to women and technical/managerial jobs to men, has been recognized as a major source of inequality worldwide with implications for the development of robust health workforces. In sub-Saharan Africa, gender inequalities are particularly acute in HIV/AIDS caregiving (90% of which is provided in the home), where women and girls make up the informal (and mostly unpaid) workforce. Men's and boy's entry into HIV/AIDS caregiving in greater numbers would both increase the equity and sustainability of national and community-level HIV/AIDS caregiving and mitigate health workforce shortages, but notions of gender essentialism and male primacy make this far from inevitable. In 2008 the Capacity Project partnered with the Lesotho Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in a study of the gender dynamics of HIV/AIDS caregiving in three districts of Lesotho to account for men's absence in HIV/AIDS caregiving and investigate ways in which they might be recruited into the community and home-based care (CHBC) workforce. Methods The study used qualitative methods, including 25 key informant interviews with village chiefs, nurse clinicians, and hospital administrators and 31 focus group discussions with community health workers, community members, ex-miners, and HIV-positive men and women. Results Study participants uniformly perceived a need to increase the number of CHBC providers to deal with the heavy workload from increasing numbers of patients and insufficient new entries. HIV/AIDS caregiving is a gender-segregated job, at the core of which lie stereotypes and beliefs about the appropriate work of men and women. This results in an inequitable, unsustainable burden on women and girls. Strategies are analyzed for their potential effectiveness in increasing equity in caregiving. Conclusions HIV/AIDS and human resources stakeholders must address occupational segregation and the underlying gender essentialism and male primacy if there is to be more equitable sharing of the HIV/AIDS caregiving burden and any long-term solution to health worker shortages. Policymakers, activists and programmers must redress the persistent disadvantages faced by the mostly female caregiving workforce and the gendered economic, psychological, and social impacts entailed in HIV/AIDS caregiving. Research on gender desegregation of HIV/AIDS caregiving is needed

Neglected Ethical Issues in Biobank Management: Results from a U.S. Study

Abstract The empirical literature on the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of biobanking has almost entirely relied on the perspectives of those outside of biobanks, such as the general public, researchers, and specimen contributors. Little attention has been paid to the perspectives and practices of those who operate biobanks. We conducted a study of U.S. biobanks consisting of six in-depth case studies and a large online survey (N = 456), which was developed from the case study results. The case studies included qualitative interviews with a total of 24 personnel. Both interview and survey questions focused on how biobanks operate, and what policies and practices govern their relationships with specimen contributors and the researchers who use the specimens. Analysis revealed unexpected ethical dilemmas embedded in those policies and practices that highlight a need for practical planning. In this paper, we review three issues seldom explored in the ELSI literature: 1. the discrepancy between biobankers’ hope that the bank will exist “permanently” and the fact that funding is limited; 2. the lack of planning for what will happen to the specimens if the bank closes; and 3. the concern that once collected, specimens may be underutilized. These dilemmas are missing from current public representations of biobanks, which instead focus on the intrinsic value in storing specimens as essential to the advancement of translational research. We argue that attention to these issues is important for biobanking, and that greater transparency of these policies and practices will contribute to promoting public trust in biobanks

Revising Reform: a Cultural History of Juvenile Justice Reform in the United States

The “child saving” movement of the late 19th century has been largely credited with the political and moral impetus for the first distinctly “juvenile” courts in Chicago, which were established in 1899 and became the model by which juvenile justice systems across the United States were based. Through the work of Jane Addams and her Settlement House colleagues, the birth of these new structures for governing juvenile delinquency, such as the Juvenile Protective Association, were also indelibly..

Violences juvéniles sous expertise(s) / Expertise and Juvenile Violence

Dans la construction historique du problème social que constitue la violence juvénile, le rôle de l'expertise est primordial. L'expert, agissant au coeur ou à la lisière du système institutionnel de protection de la jeunesse, peut être celui qui recueille et met en forme l'expression de cette violence. De ce fait, il contribue à l'extension de sa définition: violence physique, mais aussi psychique, voire symbolique. Les experts dépassent alors la posture du simple diagnostic pour s'inscrire dans une démarche de soin et de réhabilitation sociale. Depuis le XIXe siècle, médecins, psychiatres, puis psychologues, pédagogues, sociologues et anthropologues, ont investi la question de la jeunesse irrégulière, contribuant ainsi à la définition d'une population-cible pour les politiques publiques.Expertise has played an essential role in the historical construction of juvenile violence as a social problem. The expert who is situated at the centre and periphery of the child protection system, gathers the expression of violence and gives it form. In so doing, he/she contributes to a more complex definition of violence: from physical to psychic violence, and even to symbolic violence. Since the 19th century experts have moved beyond making simple diagnoses and entered the field of treatment of violence, joining others in the practice of care and rehabilitation. Physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, pedagogues, sociologists and anthropologists have addressed the question of youth at risk, helping to define a target population for public policies

Violences juvéniles sous expertise(s) / Expertise and Juvenile Violence

Dans la construction historique du problème social que constitue la violence juvénile, le rôle de l'expertise est primordial. L'expert, agissant au coeur ou à la lisière du système institutionnel de protection de la jeunesse, peut être celui qui recueille et met en forme l'expression de cette violence. De ce fait, il contribue à l'extension de sa définition: violence physique, mais aussi psychique, voire symbolique. Les experts dépassent alors la posture du simple diagnostic pour s'inscrire dans une démarche de soin et de réhabilitation sociale. Depuis le XIXe siècle, médecins, psychiatres, puis psychologues, pédagogues, sociologues et anthropologues, ont investi la question de la jeunesse irrégulière, contribuant ainsi à la définition d'une population-cible pour les politiques publiques.Expertise has played an essential role in the historical construction of juvenile violence as a social problem. The expert who is situated at the centre and periphery of the child protection system, gathers the expression of violence and gives it form. In so doing, he/she contributes to a more complex definition of violence: from physical to psychic violence, and even to symbolic violence. Since the 19th century experts have moved beyond making simple diagnoses and entered the field of treatment of violence, joining others in the practice of care and rehabilitation. Physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, pedagogues, sociologists and anthropologists have addressed the question of youth at risk, helping to define a target population for public policies