Working at the Margins describes and analyzes the move, from welfare rolls to paid employment, of adults who were marginalized from the mainstream by race, ethnicity, language, and economic status. Frances Julia Riemer utilizes ethnographic data gathered over two years from four workplaces that employed thirty seven former welfare recipients. She examines how the private sector accommodates these workers and their differences and how the workers themselves negotiate the barriers they experience. The book illustrates how government policies and adult-education initiatives, designed ostensibly to create opportunities, often reify existing inequalities.
Tabla de materias
Foreword
Preface
Introduction: Myths and Realities
PART I: THE STORIES
1. Development and the Hardest to Serve
Naming the Hardest to Serve
An Institutional History
The Reality of the Hardest to Serve
Conceptualizing the Hardest to Serve
Socialization for Work
Computers in the Learning Lab
Life Skills
Supported Work
The Social Organization of Work
Justification
Exceptions to the Rule
Perceiving Inequities
Negotiating the Naming
An Imperfect Fit
Resistance
Against Each Other
Cooling Out
Staying
Full Circle
2. Church Hall and Single Mothers on Welfare
Getting There
Single Mothers and Welfare
Training to Compensate
Blending In
Certification Training
The Work
Local Knowledge
A Professional Hierarchy
Different, Strange, and Even Dangerous
A Lack of Respect
Carving Spaces
Few Options
Protests of Denial
Viewing Practice in Piecemeal
3. Concordance Steps and Southeast Asian Refugees
Refugee as Identity
A Political History
Adult Learners
The Labor Market
Skills Training and Hands-On Learning
Job Placement
The Social Organization of Work
Cambodians Are a Little Better
The Language Barrier
Errors on the Floor
You Have to Know People
Appreciating Kindness
Accommodation in the Workplace
Learning to Juggle
4. Jackson Hospital’s Pharmacies and the Cream of the Unemployed
Getting There
The Collaboration
The Best Five
Broad-Based Funding
Learning Specific Knowledge
Getting Hired
An Occupation in Transition
A Good Salary
Active Members
Becoming Supervisors
Embracing the Role
Something’s Keeping Us Here
PART II: WHAT THE STORIES MEAN
5. Analyzing the Circle
The Pieces of Choosing
Training Programs
Sorting the Poor
The Underclass
Refugees
Assessment and the Cream of the Unemployed
Ranking Individuals
JTPA and Job Training
Downscaling Training
Defining Work
Making Sense
Distance from an Imperfect Fit
A Better Fit
6. Other Possibilities
Prioritizing Work
Cooling Out at Work
A Foot in the Door
Imaginings
Flexible Training Models
Educational Networks and Supports
Good Jobs, Good Pay, Good Benefits
Bucking the Natural Trend
Appendix A: Ethnographic Methodology and Methods
Appendix B: The People
Appendix C: State Mandated Content of Nurse Aide Training
Appendix D: Church Hall’s Clinical Performance Summary
Appendix E: Pharmacy Committees at Jackson’s Hospital
Notes
Glossary
References
Index
Sobre el autor
Frances Julia Riemer is Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Northern Arizona University.
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