Description
Book SynopsisUses ethnographic accounts of three organisations to reveal how interacting with government-funded after-school programs can enhance the civic and political lives of low-income citizens.
Trade Review“Carolyn Barnes’ work appropriately complicates our view. Her careful qualitative studies of after-school programs in three race-class subjugated communities show how for some self- and program-selected parents in some programs, participation can prove enfranchising; these parents become more engaged politically and in their communities. These after-school programs represent small, but telling, counterexamples to the general disciplinary trend in social policy.” —Steven Maynard-Moody, University of Kansas
“Carolyn Barnes makes a case for policies that encourage greater citizen involvement in social services, not just to serve ‘customers’ but to empower citizens. She asks us to think about how we might structure our institutions to enhance citizens’ capabilities to participate in democratic public life.” —Johann N. Neem, author of
Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America
