State of Empowerment: Low-Income Families and the New Welfare State

by Carolyn Barnes

On weekday afternoons, dismissal bells signal not just the end of the school day but also the beginning of another important activity: the federally funded after-school programs that offer tutoring, homework help, and basic supervision to millions of American children. Nearly one in four low-income families enroll a child in an after-school program. Beyond sharpening students’ math and reading skills, these programs also have a profound impact on parents. In a surprising turn—especially given the long history of social policies that leave recipients feeling policed, distrusted, and alienated—government-funded after-school programs have quietly become powerful forces for political and civic engagement by shifting power away from bureaucrats and putting it back into the hands of parents. In State of EmpowermentCarolyn Barnes uses ethnographic accounts of three organizations to reveal how interacting with government-funded after-school programs can enhance the civic and political lives of low-income citizens.

184 pages, Hardcover

Published March 9, 2020

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barnes is something quite special: a bureaucrat with a perspective that goes further away from the next paycheck. And while set on the good route towards freedom, Barnes remains a bureaucrat who needs more people to pay good taxes so they can pay his pension plan as well.