"I think this is the most important work I have read in over a decade on the sociology and politics of school dropouts. Fine combines a narrative structure with a rigorous theoretical discourse that allows the reader to both hear the voices of those involved in the dropout situation as well as to have the opportunity to reflect critically on the ideological and material forces that structure the dropout issue as a social problem. I am convinced that it will be a major influence in the field and will establish a new theoretical standard for inquiry into the area of school dropouts." -- Henry A. Giroux, Professor and Renown Scholar in Residence, Department of Educational Leadership, Miami University"As a critical ethnography, this manuscript is thoughtful, compassionate, and compelling. Fine is able to document the 'braiding' of race, class, gender in sophisticated ways and this is one of the text's greatest strengths. The link between those who 'drop out' and the restriction of critique is powerfully achieved. Fine has successfully re-presented the complexities of urban education. She should be applauded for her integration of black and feminist theorists. I believe this text is pioneering. It opens the literature on adolescents placed at risk to include contexts previously ignored. This should be required reading for all school personnel, future teachers, and those associated with educational contexts." -- Deborah P. Britzman, Department of Education, State University of New York, Binghamton"What Fine does is show us in depth the reality of the situation we often wish would just go away. We are forced to confront what pain is engendered by our public institutions and consider how we might take up the challenge to do something about it." -- Roger I. Simon, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Women with disabilities are women first, sharing the dreams and disappointments common to women in a male-dominated society. But because society persists in viewing disability as an emblem of passivity and incompetence, disabled women occupy a devalued status in the social hierarchy. This book represents the intersection of the feminist and disability rights perspectives; it analyzes the forces that push disabled women towards the margins of social life, and it considers the resources that enable these women to resist the stereotype. Drawing on law, social science, folklore, literature, psychoanalytic theory, and political activism, this book describes the experience of women with disabilities. The essays consider the impact of social class, race, the age at which disability occurs, and sexual orientation on the disabled woman's self esteem as well as on her life options. The contributors focus their inquiry on the self perceptions of disabled women and ask: From what sources do these women draw positive self images? How do they resist the culture's power to label them as deviant? The essays describe the ways in which disabled women face discrimination in the workplace and the failure of the mainstream women's movement to address their concerns. In the series Health, Society, and Policy, edited by Sheryl Ruzek and Irving Kenneth Zola.

Product Description: Two social psychologists outline a rigorous and rational approach to social experiments -- programmes designed to test new solutions to social problems. The basic principles of experimental design as applied to the problems of social experiments and the practicalities of measurement, collaboration and choosing the mode of research that is most applicable are discussed -- as is the problem of utilizing the results of social experimentation...read more