Search results
1 – 10 of 16The nonprofit sector has come to deliver the majority of state-funded social services in the United States. Citizens depend on nonprofit organizations for these services, and…
Abstract
The nonprofit sector has come to deliver the majority of state-funded social services in the United States. Citizens depend on nonprofit organizations for these services, and nonprofits depend on government for financial support. Scholars have begun to ask important questions about the political and civic implications of this new organizational configuration. These questions have direct ramifications for the anti-prison movement given the explosive growth of nonprofit prison reentry organizations in recent years. To see how such organizations may impact political engagement and social movements, this chapter turns its focus on the intricate dynamics of client-staff interactions. Leveraging a yearlong ethnography of a government-funded prison reentry organization, I describe how such organizations can be politically active and at the same time contribute to their clients' political pacification. Staff members engaged in political activities in surrogate representation of their clients. While staffers advocated on their behalf, clients learned to avoid politics and community life, accept injustices for what they are, and focus instead on individual rehabilitation. By closely studying what goes on within a nonprofit service provider, I illustrate the nonprofit organization's dual political role and its implications for social movements and political change.
Details
Keywords
Jeannette Oppedisano and Kenneth Laird
This article presents a pedagogical model that utilizes students as primary researchers in the identification, interviewing, and then reporting on women entrepreneurs as a major…
Abstract
This article presents a pedagogical model that utilizes students as primary researchers in the identification, interviewing, and then reporting on women entrepreneurs as a major component of a multidisciplinary entrepreneurship course. The purpose of the course is to attract students who may not be familiar with the entrepreneurship concept itself, the role of women in such economic ventures, or the possibilities for people like themselves in such a career avenue. Students are exposed to the accomplishments of women entrepreneurs throughout U.S. history in the broad categories of agriculture and mining; construction; communication; manufacturing; service (both for profit and not-for-profit); transportation; and wholesale and retail trade. This content experience is then enhanced by the studentsʼ own direct interaction with and interviewing of women entrepreneurs. The implementation, potential outcomes, and possible adaptations of the course are described, and this transformational learning process model is illustrated.
Hanna Carlsson, Fredrik Hanell and Lisa Engström
This article explores how public librarians understand and perform the democratic mission of public libraries in times of political and social turbulence and critically discusses…
Abstract
Purpose
This article explores how public librarians understand and perform the democratic mission of public libraries in times of political and social turbulence and critically discusses the idea of public libraries as meeting places.
Design/methodology/approach
Five group interviews conducted with public librarians in southern Sweden are analyzed using a typology of four perspectives on democracy.
Findings
Two perspectives on democracy are commonly represented: social-liberal democracy, focusing on libraries as promoters of equality and deliberative democracy, focusing on the library as a place for rational deliberation. Two professional dilemmas in particular present challenges to librarians: how to handle undemocratic voices and how to be a library for all.
Originality/value
The analysis points to a need for rethinking the idea of the meeting place and offers a rare example of an empirically based argument for the benefits of plural agonistics for analyzing and strengthening the democratic role of public libraries.
Details
Keywords
J. Ben Arbaugh, Alvin Hwang, Jeffrey J. McNally, Charles J. Fornaciari and Lisa A. Burke-Smalley
This paper aims to compare the nature of three different business and management education (BME) research streams (online/blended learning, entrepreneurship education and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to compare the nature of three different business and management education (BME) research streams (online/blended learning, entrepreneurship education and experiential learning), along with their citation sources to draw insights on their support and legitimacy bases, with lessons on improving such support and legitimacy for the streams and the wider BME research field.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyze the nature of three BME research streams and their citation sources through tests of differences across streams.
Findings
The three streams differ in research foci and approaches such as the use of managerial samples in experiential learning, quantitative studies in online/blended education and literature reviews in entrepreneurship education. They also differ in sources of legitimacy recognition and avenues for mobilization of support. The underlying literature development pattern of the experiential learning stream indicates a need for BME scholars to identify and build on each other’s work.
Research limitations/implications
Identification of different research bases and key supporting literature in the different streams shows important core articles that are useful to build research in each stream.
Practical implications
Readers will understand the different research bases supporting the three research streams, along with their targeted audience and practice implications.
Social implications
The discovery of different support bases for the three different streams helps identify the network of authors and relationships that have been built in each stream.
Originality/value
According to the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to uncover differences in nature and citation sources of the three continuously growing BME research streams with recommendations on ways to improve the support of the three streams.
Details