Seasons Such As These: How Homelessness Took Shape in AmericaTransaction Publishers - 256 pàgines Homelessness had become a social problem that was primarily not about solving the nation's housing crisis. The pressing question becomes: How (and why) did homelessness become the social problem in its own right, one that was only tangentially related to the problem of inappropriate or insufficient housing? Why, when people demanded that something be done about homelessness, did they get specific policies and unintended outcomes? Cynthia Bogard is not content with the shorthand answers that rested on bias and ideology, such as "conservative politics bred conservative policies" or "American individualism precludes government investment in housing." This did not explain homelessness sufficiently, especially given all the advocacy and research that had occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. Examining these "claimsmaking activities," as constructionists call them, however, is a daunting task because the activities engaged in by people in the attempt to persuade others are fluid, subtle, and complicated as are the responses to these social actions. This raised a second set of issues that the author is concerned with: How can we adequately represent and sociologically examine this very complicated human activity of social problems construction? Who does the construction, and to what effect? Bogard's answer to these questions is a book that can be read in two ways and on multiple levels. For those who are interested in the story of the career of homelessness as a social problem in America's two "national" cities, the book should be read from the beginning through the conclusion as a straight narrative. The technical matter in the appendix can be ignored. But for those readers with an interest in social problems constructionism, however, this book is meant as a "cook-book" of sorts. Each chapter emphasizes a feature of constructionism, such as an important group of claims makers or an important aspect of the claims making process. The work highlights a major feature in advanced societies: the intersection of interests and claims. Social constructions may be real, but they are comprised of no less real social interests. The work marks a real departure and advance over the original formulations of construction theory in social research. Cynthia J. Bogard is associate professor of sociology at Hofstra University. |
Continguts
9 | |
Government Officials as Claimsmakers | 29 |
The Role of the Media in Constructing Homelessness | 47 |
The Interactions of Claimsmakers and Issues | 69 |
XV | 70 |
19 | 77 |
How Many Homeless? Experts Advocates and | 97 |
Building the Moral Momentum for Federal Action | 125 |
The Unintended Consequences | 195 |
Postscript | 205 |
References | 219 |
29 | 226 |
Index | 249 |
34 | 250 |
งง | 255 |
220 | 177 |
Altres edicions - Mostra-ho tot
Seasons Such As These: How Homelessness Took Shape in America Cynthia J. Bogard Previsualització limitada |
Seasons Such As These: How Homelessness Took Shape in America Cynthia J. Bogard Previsualització limitada - 2003 |
Seasons Such as These: How Homelessness Took Shape in America Cynthia J. Bogard Previsualització no disponible - 2003 |
Frases i termes més freqüents
action activists actors advocates Aldine de Gruyter Americans April August bill campaign Carol Fennelly Catholic CCNV letter CCNV members CCNV shelter CCNV's city's claims claimsmaking activities Colman McCarthy Congress construction of homelessness constructionism constructionist context continued December December 26 Democratic District Doug McAdam editorial emergency shelter estimate event experts fast February February 19 federal government frame funds Harvest of Shame Heckler Holstein homeless shelter homelessness and hunger Hopper HUD study Initiative 17 interaction interpretive iron quadrangle issue January 26 July June Kansas City legislation March Margaret Heckler Mayor Barry million Mitch Snyder moral November November 25 number of homeless officials ontology Philadelphia Inquirer political poor Post poverty president prob programs protest Rader Reagan administration release renovation reported Republican social world soup line story street surplus food Tip O'Neill typification University Press Urban USA Today Washington welfare White House York City
Passatges populars
Pàgina vi - Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these ? O, I have ta'en Too little care of this ! Take physic, pomp ; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them, And show the heavens more just.
Pàgina 22 - Since these are times of modest expectations, our goal is simple: the creation of adequate, accessible space, offered in an atmosphere of reasonable dignity, for every man, woman, and child who needs and wants to get in off the street.
Pàgina 212 - To it the world is from the outset not the private world of the single individual but an intersubjective world, common to all of us, in which we have not a theoretical but an eminently practical interest. The world of everyday life is the scene and also the object of our actions and interactions. We have to dominate it and we have to change it in order to realize the purposes which we pursue within it among our fellow-men. We work and operate not only within but upon the world.
Pàgina 80 - I've heard a lot of anecdotal stuff, but I haven't heard any authoritative figures...! think some people are going to soup kitchens voluntarily. I know we've had considerable information that people go to soup kitchens because the food is free and that that's easier than paying for it...
Pàgina 212 - We work and operate not only within but upon the world. Our bodily movements - kinaesthetic, locomotive, operative - gear, so to speak, into the world, modifying or changing its objects and their mutual relationships. On the other hand, these objects offer resistance to our acts which we have either to overcome or to which we have to yield.
Pàgina 208 - external realism" stipulates that "the world (or, alternatively, reality or the universe) exists independently of our representations of it.
Pàgina 173 - I don't believe that there is anyone that is going hungry in America simply by reason of denial or lack of ability to feed them.
Pàgina 173 - ... you have to determine that that is probably because of a lack of knowledge on the part of the people as to what things are available.
Pàgina 150 - Congress, the may^ or and a few movie stars were scheduled to k_/ spend last night on a grate to demonstrate their concern for the homeless. The gesture continues the strange glamorization of this issue that no one fully understands yet so many want to use. The problem of the homeless has arrived in our midst with what has to be called unnatural speed. Five years ago, if headlines are the measure, it hardly existed. Now it pervades the society. To what extent has reality changed, to what extent is...