Book review of Robert Chaskin and Jona M. Rosenfeld (Eds.), Research for Action: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge, Policy, and Practice for Children. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. $42.95 hardcover

Robbins, Ann Reyes

English

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The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 36 Issue 3 September Article 12 2009 Review of Research for Action: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge, Policy, and Practice for Children. Robert Chaskin and Jona M. Rosenfeld, Editors. Reviewed by Ann Reyes Robbins. Ann Reyes Robbins University of Southern California Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw  Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Robbins, Ann Reyes (2009) "Review of Research for Action: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge, Policy, and Practice for Children. Robert Chaskin and Jona M. Rosenfeld, Editors. Reviewed by Ann Reyes Robbins.," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 36 : Iss. 3 , Article 12. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol36/iss3/12 This Book Review is brought to you by the Western Michigan University School of Social Work. For more information, please contact wmu-scholarworks@wmich.edu. 204 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfarea conference at Syracuse University under the leadership ofnoted sociologists Majorie DeVault who is recognized as anleading exponent of the institutional ethnographic approach.She has successfully organized these very diverse paper is intoa coherent collection that examines the way the everyday expe-riences of people are shaped by wider systems. Although thebook is primarily written for sociologists and ethnographers,its concern with vulnerable people and those on the margins onthe new economy will be of particular interest to social workersand social policy scholars. Indeed, the book contains severalchapters on issues that are of direct social welfare interest suchas disability, poverty and income maintenance and support.Despite its academic nature, the book is eminently readableand it makes a valuable contribution to professional as well asscholarly literature.James Midgley, University of California, BerkeleyRobert Chaskin and Jona M. Rosenfeld (Eds.), Research forAction: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge,Policy, and Practice for Children. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 2007. $42.95 hardcover.The themes of cross-national collaboration and learn-ing have increasingly appeared in literature on child welfarepolicy. Likewise, the notion that research should not be an endgoal but should rather serve a practical purpose that effectu-ates social change has moved from the realm of idealism tobecome an expectation in policy research, particularly socialpolicy research. This text attempts to move researchers onestep closer to action research by providing a framework toengage diverse stakeholders in the research and knowledgedissemination processes.Robert Chaskin and Jona Rosenfeld divide the text intothree parts. In Part I, they provide an overview of the cross-na-tional promotion of evidence-based policy and cross-sectoralgovernance that involves not only a collaborative sharing ofresearch information between government, non profit, andprivate sectors, but also the adaptation and application ofstrategies and technologies among stakeholders. The editorsBook Reviewsposit that despite the increased incorporation of evaluative ap-proaches into program implementation, there remains limitedunderstanding about effective means for implementing evi-dence-based policy and practice within the social welfare andhuman services fields. The introduction provides a textualroadmap of questions and issues for the reader to considerwhen reviewing the six case studies that comprise Part II ofthe book.Prior to providing the reader with a theoretical frameworkfor the problem and placing the text's contributions within thecontext of existing research literature, the editors expose thereader to six distinct narratives, all focused on child welfareinterventions, arising from experiences in Northern Ireland,South Africa, the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom,and Dublin, Ireland. The case studies are arranged to progressfrom a macro-level policy focus involving researcher experi-ences with studies targeting policy development and imple-mentation to shared experiences with studies primarily tar-geting micro-level practice and administration. The voicesand perspectives of service recipients are shared in the sixthcase study that focuses on the process involved with dissemi-nating an educational handbook to youth in residential carein Ireland. The next case study focuses on the impact of theNorthern Ireland Family Support Research Project to childwelfare policy in Northern Ireland. This is followed by a similaranalysis of the role that the Child Health Policy Institute at theUniversity of Cape Town played in the development of fire-arms control legislation in South Africa. The next discussesthe implementation of the Quick Response project with re-flections about the impact of collaboration between ChapinHall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and theIllinois Department of Children and Family Services. This isfollowed by a retrospective report on the relationship betweenthe Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute and the Children andYouth Services Division of the Israel Ministry of Social Affairsin implementing the RAF (regulation, assessment, and follow-up) method for quality assurance in residential settings. Thelast case study provides an overview of the development andimplementation of the Going Home? practice tool aimed at re-ducing the time children spend in out-of-home placement in206 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfarethe United Kingdom.In Part III, Robert Chaskin extracts the lessons and keythemes suggested by the six case studies and assess theiroverall contributions to theory and practice. The final chapteris written by both editors, and provides a framework for inte-grating future research, policy, and practice to more effectivelyfuse these often distinct "communities" with the purpose of fa-cilitating action at both the organizational and systems levels.The editors reject the notion that the relationship between ex-planation (research) and change (action) is intrinsically dichoto-mous and instead argue that fostering a dialectical relationshipamong researchers, policymakers, managers, and practitionerscan lead to inventive approaches to action and generate newquestions and inquiry. While the editors acknowledge the com-plexities of cultivating interactions between diverse stakehold-ers with varying degrees of power, they view this as an op-portunity to build relationships centered on shared core valuessuch as the desire to improve the well-being of children andyoung people as illustrated in the six case studies.The volume was ambitious in its scope and the case studiespresented provide varying levels of usefulness for the intend-ed audience of researchers, policymakers, practitioners, andadvocates. The text is very relevant to child welfare research-ers and policy students. The cross-cutting themes and lessonsand the analysis of researcher roles, relationships, and engage-ment styles are valuable contributions to the research on cross-sectoral governance, which has up to this point largely ignoredchild welfare policy as a focus. The questions raised in thebook's introduction are also useful for guiding students in ana-lyzing case studies generally, not only those included here.Ann Reyes Robbins, University of Southern CaliforniaAndrew Battista, The Revival of Labor Liberalism. Champaign,IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008. $45.00 hardcover.In this book, Andrew Battista situates himself nicely ina long-standing academic dialogue. He makes four centralclaims in the book. One, the rise of unions and labor shapedthe American political and social landscape. Second, the

Review of \u3cem\u3eResearch for Action: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge, Policy, and Practice for Children.\u3c/em\u3e Robert Chaskin and Jona M. Rosenfeld, Editors. Reviewed by Ann Reyes Robbins.

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3458&amp;context=jssw

Review of \u3cem\u3eResearch for Action: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge, Policy, and Practice for Children.\u3c/em\u3e Robert Chaskin and Jona M. Rosenfeld, Editors. Reviewed by Ann Reyes Robbins.

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