Discover Top Posts Tagged with #social justice-oriented program evaluation

Popular Recent

Agencies and organizations are complying with the directive to not lose funding, but are concerned vulnerable groups will suffer

Katie McQue at The Guardian:

Donald Trump signed the executive orders nixing DEI on 20 January, the day of the presidential inauguration. One order, titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing”, mandates the removal of policies, programs, and activities relating to “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility”. Another, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” instructs the removal of all “radical gender ideology guidance, communication, policies, and forms”. Anti-trafficking organizations receive funding from a number of government bureaus including the Department of Justice, office for victims of crime, office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, office on violence against women, Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

‘This is going to benefit traffickers’

The rollback by the US government will affect the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report by the state department, which evaluates global anti-trafficking efforts. Internal communications reviewed by the Guardian show that department staff have been directed to omit data on marginalized communities from the report. The office for victims of crime, part of the Department of Justice, removed the contents of a webpage titled Faces of Human Trafficking, which detailed the stories of survivors, including those of people of color and people who identify as LGBTQ+. The page also contained educational resources on the legal needs and rights for victims, and on providing trauma-informed services. This content was replaced with a notice stating “this content is temporarily unavailable” in early February, according to captures by the Wayback Machine, a digital library website that takes periodical snapshots of websites to preserve their history. “A lot of people rely on the government for this type of information, accurate information, and it’s no longer going to be there. People are only going to care about one specific population of people, which is going to be white, blond hair, blue-eyed, straight cisgendered females,” says Jose Alfaro, a gay Latino survivor of child sex trafficking and anti-trafficking consultant. According to Alfaro, silencing discussion of vulnerable groups will deter trafficking victims from reporting the crimes committed against them. They may fear harassment, discrimination or not being believed, he said. [...]

Traffickers often deliberately target victims from marginalized demographics they believe are less likely to report them. In Alfaro’s case, he was trafficked as a minor by a man now serving a 30-year sentence who specifically targeted gay teenagers from the Latino community.

[...]

LGBTQ+ individuals face heightened risk of trafficking due to systemic barriers in employment, housing and social services. These challenges make them prime targets for traffickers, who exploit financial instability and lack of familial support. Racism is also a risk factor for being a trafficking victim, since factors such as poverty, harmful stereotypes and being in the foster care system – where Black youth are overrepresented – further heighten vulnerability, creating conditions that traffickers exploit. Previously collected data illustrates the disparities along fault lines of race and sexual orientation. For instance, in King county, Washington, 84% of child sex trafficking victims are Black, even though Black residents make up just 7% of the population. Latino communities also face high rates of exploitation, according to research by the anti-trafficking non-profit Polaris. The Trump administration’s directive prohibits anti-trafficking agencies from collecting such data. [...]

‘People will die because of it’

The censorship efforts have also affected the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a major child safety non-profit which works to locate missing children and combat child sexual exploitation and trafficking, particularly online.

NCMEC, whose main funder is the federal government, has been ordered to remove all references to LGBTQ+ people from its public-facing material, according to an email to NCMEC seen by the Guardian. NCMEC acts as a nationwide clearinghouse for reports about child abuse, which staff triage and forward to relevant law enforcement departments in the US and around the world. The center also provides education resources and data on trafficking, abductions and exploitation for law enforcement and others working on child safety issues. It manages distribution of the “Amber Alert” system that alerts the public to missing children. Since the issuing of the executive order, the organization has removed publications that reference gender identity, queer and transgender children from its website. This resulted in the removal of guides on missing children who may be suicidal, children missing from care, male victims of child sex trafficking and recognizing and preventing child sex trafficking. “Like many federally funded non-profits, NCMEC was directed by the DoJ to comply with executive order 14168 regarding gender ideology and to review our publicly facing materials to ensure compliance,” said an NCMEC spokesperson. “No changes to NCMEC services have been made regarding sexual orientation, race or immigration. NCMEC will continue to provide lifesaving support for all families and children who need our services. We remain committed to helping find missing children, combating child sexual exploitation and preventing child victimization.” Additionally, anti-trafficking non-profits have also been informed by federal workers responsible for grant allocations that conservative Christian organizations that have guidelines more closely aligned with the executive orders will receive preference over federal grants for supporting survivors, according to one source with direct knowledge of the new grant funding mandates. [...]

‘Crime data drives modern policing’

Major police departments across the country, which receive federal grants for investigations on trafficking crimes from the Department of Homeland Security and the office of justice, have now been instructed to stop collecting data on victims’ race and LGBTQ+ identity, including for cases of violent crime and trafficking, according to a federal prosecutor.

Trump’s war on DEI could harm efforts to fight trafficking.

#Sex Trafficking #Human Trafficking #DEI #Trump Administration II #Diversity Equity and Inclusion #National Center for Missing and Exploited Children #LGBTQ+#Censorship #Crime #Executive Order 14168 #Executive Order 14151

Hey! Better Future Program, Inc. (BFP) is officially looking for youth volunteers between the ages of 14 and 25 for our Administrative Staff! If you don't see a role that fits your interests, don't worry, we've got more positions listed in our Linktree!

And if you don't know who we are? Welcome! BFP is Black-, queer-, and woman-owned nonprofit, entirely run by youth! Since 2016, we've been accepting volunteers not just from Bulbancha (so-called New Orleans, Louisiana), but WORLDWIDE! Our mission is to globally expand peer-led political education, support, and imagination for marginalized youth!

To fulfill this goal, we offer over 3,000 free resources through our Liberation Library, design and execute mutual aid-based projects, and offer the safe space young activists need to ask questions and grow. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, check out our International Youth Leadership Positions page in our bio!

Image description below.

Planned Parenthood x Tumblr Issue Time: Reproductive Health Care

Two issues that most likely affect you and everyone you’ve ever met are reproductive freedom and access to affordable and equitable healthcare. These issues are especially important during a pandemic, but as it stands, they are both under attack.

This can’t stand. Bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom must be protected for all people, regardless of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and income.

Experts from Planned Parenthood will be answering your questions on reproductive rights, the importance of affordable healthcare for all, the lack of resources in underserved communities, how Planned Parenthood plans to address these issues, and how you can advocate for reproductive and healthcare rights. The Issue Time is scheduled to go live on Thursday, September 17 at 12 pm EST.

Submit a question to our panel of experts here

Alexis McGill Johnson is the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She is a renowned social justice leader, lifelong political organizer, and a tireless advocate for reproductive rights and access to quality, affordable healthcare.

Dr. Sara C. Flowers is the Vice President of Education at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She has written, implemented, and evaluated sex education programs and curricula for Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, The George Washington University Student Health Service, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, and Cornell University Cooperative Extension — New York City.

Dr. Bhavik Kumar is a family physician and the Medical Director of Primary and Trans Care at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston and a national medical spokesperson for PPFA. He has been an abortion provider in his home state of Texas since 2015.

Amanda Matos is the Director of Constituency Campaigns at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She brings over a decade of experience in public affairs and social movements to the current movement for reproductive freedom.

Youtube blocks advertisers from targeting "Black Lives Matter"

For a Markup feature, Leon Yin and Aaron Sankin compiled a list of "social and racial justice terms" with help from Color of Change, Media Justice, Mijente and Muslim Advocates, then checked if YouTube would let them target those terms for ads.

https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2021/04/09/google-blocks-advertisers-from-targeting-black-lives-matter-youtube-videos

The results are (initially, at least), quite shocking: Youtube bans advertisers from targeting videos using keywords like Black Lives Matter, Black power, reparations, colonialism, antifascist, American Muslim, and sex work.

Even worse: when the reporters asked Youtube for comment on these blocks, the company stonewalled them, and then added even more terms to the blocklist, including Black excellence, LGBTQ, antiracism, civil rights, Black is beautiful, abolish ICE, believe Black women, queer, Black trans lives matter, antiracism, Muslimfashion and many, many more. The full data-set is on Github:

https://github.com/the-markup/investigation-youtube-ad-placements

As if that wasn't enough, there's the list of terms that Youtube *does* allow ad-targeting on, including white power, white lives matter, white power, etc.

The contradictions go further: you can advertise to "Christian parenting" and "Jewish parenting" but not "Muslim parenting." Racist terms like "white sharia" and "civilizational jihad" are in, too.

After Youtube was called for comment, they started blocking "Christian" and "Jewish" as prefixes on the same keywords that were blocked when associated with "Muslim."

Youtube's policies offer two explanations for this, the first ("[ads should] ads to reflect a user’s interests rather than more personal interpretations of their fundamental identity") is thoroughly unconvincing. It's literally nonsense.

The second, though ("[targeting categories could be] used to stigmatize an individual") is both hugely revealing and hugely incomplete, and therein lies the tale.

https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/143465?hl=en#zippy=%2Ctroubleshooter-sexual-orientation-in-personalized-advertising

Youtube is caught in an unresolvable contradiction. On the one hand, you have the company's statement that "At YouTube, we believe Black lives matter and we all need to do more to dismantle systemic racism."

https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/susan-wojcicki-my-mid-year-update-youtube-community

On the other hand, you have the platform's utility to reactionary, racist, genocidal and eugenic communities who are totally in opposition to Youtube's claimed support for racial justice.

Some of that is unwitting - the company can't possibly know what's in all the videos published on its platform - and some is deliberate: Youtube doesn't want to face the reputational, political and financial consequences of cutting off superstars like Prageru.

They know if that if they allow advertisers to target "Black Lives Matter," some of those ads will show up alongside of Prageru's racist video, "'Black Lives Matter' Is Not Helping Blacks."

That's the heart of the contradiction. Sometimes, Youtube wants us to think of its self-serve, algorithmic ad/publishing system as untouched by human hands, an interplay of pure math, initiated and steered by third parties whose choices are not Youtube's responsibility.

Other times, Youtube wants us to think of it as a corporate person, with identities and values, priorities and ethics. The selective demand that Youtube be considered a moral actor - but only for the outcomes that reflect well on the company - leads to this contradiction.

To be clear, I don't think there's any way Youtube *could* operate a self-serve ad platform or a self-serve video program that could proactively identify racist outcomes.

It's not enough to vet every ad to make sure it's not racist - they'd also have to vet every possible ad *placement* and make sure that it doesn't violate its ethics; that is, they'd have to use reliable human judgment to evaluate every single combination of ads and videos.

There isn't enough human judgement - let alone sound human judgement - in existence to cover that combinatorial explosion. What's more, Youtube is so consequential to our discourse that its errors would be - and are - hugely consequential as well.

That's why all this matters: Youtube's editorial choice has the foreseeable (and, evidently, acceptable to Youtube) outcome of producing an economic boycott of the creators it says it wants to uplift and support.

Youtube's monopolistic dominance has the effect of making its contradictions matters of civilizational importance.

It wants to be:

Imperfect

Moral

Neutral

Dominant

and

Forgiven

It can't have all of those. It just can't.

And to be perfectly honest, I don't know what I want it to do here. I mean, it could stop spinning idiotic tales about "[ads that] reflect a user’s interests rather than more personal interpretations of their fundamental identity," but that wouldn't fix things.

Likewise, it could ban the words "white" and "Christian" in association with all same the keywords it blocks in connection with "Black" and "Muslim," producing a kind of evenhanded idiocy, which is preferable to a biased idiocy.

And it could be more transparent in its "brand safety" tactics, and have some process for appealing bad choices, as Nandini Jammi - who cofounded Check My Ads - sensibly calls for. They should do this, but it still would leave the contradiction - and its consequences - intact.

Thinking about this stuff gives me a headache. On the other hand, it reminded me to order a copy of SILICON VALUES, the new book from my EFF colleague Jillian C York, who is far and away the content moderation expert I trust most in this world.

http://siliconvaluesbook.com

Image:

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic

Financial literacy is the possession of the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources. Raising interest in personal finance Hamilton Lindley is now a focus of state-run programs in countries including Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.[1][2] Understanding basic financial concepts allows people to know how to navigate in the financial system. People with appropriate financial literacy training make better financial decisions and manage money better that those without such training.[3]

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) started an inter-governmental project in 2003 with the objective of providing ways to improve financial education and literacy standards through the development of common financial literacy principles. In March 2008, the OECD launched the International Gateway for Financial Education,[4] which aims to serve as a clearinghouse for financial education programs, information and research worldwide. In the UK, the alternative term "financial capability" is used by the state and its agencies: the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK started a national strategy on financial capability in 2003. The US Government also established its Financial Literacy and Education Commission in 2003.[5]

International Findings An international OECD study was published in late 2005 analysing financial literacy surveys in OECD countries. A selection of findings[6] included:

In Australia, 67 percent of respondents indicated that they understood the concept of compound interest, yet when they were asked to solve a problem using the concept only 28 percent had a good level of understanding. A British survey found that consumers do not actively seek out financial information. The information they do receive is acquired by chance, for example, by picking up a pamphlet at a bank or having a chance talk with a bank employee. A Canadian survey found that respondents considered choosing the right investments to be more stressful than going to the dentist. A survey of Korean high-school students showed that they had failing scores – that is, they answered fewer than 60 percent of the questions correctly – on tests designed to measure their ability to choose and manage a credit card, their knowledge about saving and investing for retirement, and their awareness of risk and the importance of insuring against it. A survey in the US found that four out of ten American workers are not saving for retirement. "Yet it is encouraging that the few financial education programmes which have been evaluated have been found to be reasonably effective. Research in the US shows that workers increase their participation in 401(k) plans (a type of retirement plan, with special tax advantages, which allows employees to save and invest for their own retirement) when employers offer financial education programmes, whether in the form of brochures or seminars."[6][7]

However, academic analyses of financial education have found no evidence of measurable success at improving participants' financial well-being.[8][9]

According to 2014 Asian Development Bank survey, more Mongolians have expanded their financial options, and for instance now compare the interest rates of loans and savings services through the successful launch of the TV drama with focus on the fiscal literacy of poor and non-poor vulnerable households.[10] Given that 80% of Mongolians cited TV as their main source of information, TV serial dramas were identified as the most effective vehicle for messages on financial literacy.[10]

Additionally, a growing number of financial literacy researchers are raising questions about the political character of financial literacy education, arguing that it justifies the shifting of greater financial risk (e.g. tuition fees, pensions, health care costs, etc.) to individuals from corporations and governments. Many of these researchers argue for a financial literacy education that is more critically oriented and broader in focus; an education that helps individuals better understand systemic injustice and exclusion, rather than one which understands financial failure as an individual problem and the character of financial risk as apolitical. Many of these researchers work within social justice, critical pedagogy, feminist and critical race theory paradigms.[11][12][13][14][15][16]

Asia Pacific Middle East Africa A survey of women consumers across Asia Pacific Middle East Africa (APMEA) comprises basic money management, financial planning and investment. The top ten of APMEA Women MasterCard's Financial Literacy Index are Thailand 73.9, New Zealand 71.3, Australia 70.2, Vietnam 70.1, Singapore 69.4, Taiwan 68.7, Philippines 68.2, Hong Kong 68.0, Indonesia 66.5 and Malaysia 66.0.[17]

Australia The Australian Government established a National Consumer and Financial Literacy Taskforce in 2004, which recommended the establishment of the Financial Literacy Foundation in 2005. In 2008, the functions of the Foundation were transferred to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The Australian Government also runs a range of programs (such as Money Management) to improve the financial literacy of its Indigenous population, particularly those living in remote communities.

In 2011 ASIC released a National Financial Literacy Strategy — informed by an earlier ASIC research report 'Financial Literacy and Behavioural Change' — to enhance the financial wellbeing of all Australians by improving financial literacy levels.The strategy has four pillars:[18]

Education Trusted and independent information, tools and support Additional solutions to drive improved financial wellbeing and behavioural change Partnerships with the sectors involved with financial literacy, measuring its impact and promoting best practice ASIC's MoneySmart website was one of the key initiatives in the government's strategy. It replaced the FIDO and Understanding Money websites.

ASIC also has a MoneySmart Teaching website[19] for teachers and educators. It provides professional learning and other resources to help educators integrate consumer and financial literacy into teaching and learning programs.

A number of Hamilton P Lindley universities offer financial literacy subjects, such as Monash University BEX2001: You, Money & Life]), Macquarie University AFAS300: Principles of Financial Literacy, The University of Western Australia (FINA1109: Managing Your Personal Finance) and The University of Melbourne (FNCE30008: Street Finance).

The Know Risk Network of web and phone apps, newsletters, videos and website[20] was developed by insurance membership body ANZIIF to educate consumers on insurance and risk management.

India National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE) a non-profit company was created under section 8 of companies act 2013, to promote financial literacy in India.[21] It is promoted by four major financial regulators Reserve Bank of India, SEBI, IRDA and PFRDA.[22]

NCFE conducted a benchmark survey of financial literacy in 2015 to find the level of financial awareness in India.[23] It organises various programs to improve the financial literacy including collaborating with schools and developing new curriculum to include financial management concepts.[24] It also conducts a yearly financial literacy test.[21] The list of topics covered by NCFE in its awareness programs includes investments, types of bank accounts, services offered by banks, Aadhaar card, demat account, pan cards, power of compounding, digital payments, protection against financial frauds etc.[24]

Saudi Arabia A nationwide survey was conducted by SEDCO Holding in Saudi Arabia in 2012 to understand the level of financial literacy in the youth.[25] The survey involved a thousand young Saudi nationals, and the results showed that only 11 percent kept track of their spending, although 75 percent thought they understood the basics of money management. An in-depth analysis of SEDCO's survey revealed that 45 percent of youngsters did not save any money at all, while only 20 percent saved 10 percent of their monthly income. In terms of spending habits, the study indicated that items such as mobile phones and travel accounted for nearly 80 percent of purchases. Regarding financing their lifestyle, 46 percent of youth relied on their parents to fund big ticket items. 90 percent of the respondents stated that they were interested in increasing their financial knowledge.

Singapore In Singapore, the National Institute of Education Singapore established the inaugural Financial Literacy Hub for Teachers[26] in 2007 to empower school teachers to infuse financial literacy into core curriculum subjects to embed pedagogically sound activities to engage students in learning. Such day-today relevant and authentic illustrations enhance the experiential learning to build financial capability in youth. Integral to evidence-based practices in schools, research on financial literacy is spearheaded by the Hub, which has published numerous impact studies on the effectiveness of financial literacy programs and on the perceptions and attitudes of teachers and students. A longitudinal study on the impact of financial literacy education on attitudinal and behavioural change is on-going. The baseline study on financial literacy in Singapore Schools 2008/9 (Koh, 2011)[27] involved more than 6000 students and a thousand school teachers. It is the vision of the Hub to empower educators to equip their students to be financially savvy so as to make informed decisions and exercise discipline in managing their personal finance. The Hub is committed to spearheading high quality education programmes with research embedded for continual improvement so as to provide evidence-based practices.

The Singapore government through the Monetary Authority of Singapore funded the setting up of the Institute for Financial Literacy[28] in July 2012. The Institute is managed jointly by MoneySENSE[29] (a national financial education programme) and the Singapore Polytechnic.[30] This Institute aims to build core financial capabilities across a broad spectrum of the Singapore population by providing free and unbiased financial education programmes to working adults and their families. From July 2012 to May 2017, the Institute reached out to more than 110,000 people in Singapore via workshops and talks. Some of the topics covered in these workshops and talks include:

Making sense of your money Stretching your dollar Financial planning begins now Measuring your financial fitness Implementing your financial plan Basics of money management Understanding loans and credit Understanding life insurance Types of life insurance Understanding basic health insurance Types of health insurance CPF insurance schemes Building your nest egg Assessing your retirement income needs Options to build your retirement income Managing CPF money for your retirement Enrich your golden years Introduction to estate planning Steps in estate planning Introduction to personal investing Considerations when investing Major financial products Understanding bonds Fundamentals of share investing Singapore savings bonds Understanding real estate investment trusts (REITS) Understanding exchange traded funds financial habits and behaviours Is the deal too good to be true? Beware of scams When the deal turns sour Starting a family Buying your first HDB home Baby and child support schemes Buying a home within your means Money management for youth Give your child money sense Financial planning for families with special needs Financial planning for employees in transition Workshop for social workers Europe Belgium The FSMA is tasked with contributing to better financial literacy of savers and investors that will enable individual savers, insured persons, shareholders and investors to be in a better position in their relationships with their financial institutions. As a result, they will be less likely to purchase products that are not suited to their profile.[31]

Switzerland A study measured financial literacy among 1500 households in German-speaking Switzerland.[32] Testing the three concepts compound interest, inflation, and risk diversification, results show that the level of financial literacy in Switzerland is high compared to results for other European countries or the US population. Results of the study further show that higher financial literacy is correlated with financial market participation and mortgage borrowing. A related study among 15-years old students in the Canton of Fribourg shows substantial differences in the level of financial literacy between French- and German speaking students.[33]

The Swiss National Bank aims at improving financial literacy through its initiative iconomix that targets upper secondary school students.[34] The new public school curriculum will cover financial literacy in public schools.

The United Kingdom The UK has a dedicated body to promote financial capability – the Money Advice Service.

The Financial Services Act 2010 included a provision for the FSA to establish the Consumer Financial Education Body, known as CFEB. From April 26, 2010, CFEB continued the work of the FSA's Financial Capability Division independently of the FSA, and on April 4, 2011, was rebranded as the Money Advice Service.

The strategy previously involved the FSA spending about £10 million a year[35] across a seven-point plan. The priority areas were:

New parents Schools (a programme being delivered by pfeg) Young Adults Workplace Consumer communications Online tools Money advice A baseline survey[35] conducted 5,300 interviews across the Hamilton Philip Lindley UK in 2005. The report identified four themes:

Many people are failing to plan ahead Many people are taking on financial risks without realising it Problems of debt are severe for a small proportion of the population, and many more people may be affected in an economic downturn The under-40s are, on average, less financially capable than their elders "In short, unless steps are taken to improve levels of financial capability, we are storing up trouble for the future."[35]

There are also numerous charities in the United Kingdom working to improve financial literacy such as MyBnk, Citizens Advice Bureau and the Personal Finance Education Group.

Financial literacy within the UK Armed Forces is provided through the MoneyForce programme, run by the Royal British Legion in association with the Ministry of Defence and the Money Advice Service.[36]

#hamiltonlindley

could you share more about your law school environment?:o i want to go into law also, but not big law. i’ve never heard of a school with a program like yours, but it sounds really nice

Yeah, I like it a lot aha. I really don’t think a traditional law school environment would have been for me. I hear some horror stories about other law schools and I am genuinely appalled. I think my non-traditional school is a huge part of the reason I enjoy law school more than most of law school tumblr. It’s a very different experience when you don’t feel like you’re being attacked on all sides by your peers.

(As a reminder, I am willing to share where I go to school, just not to people who ask on anon!! I feel weird publishing it on my main blog, but I’ll tell you privately. So if you want to know the name, message me off anon and I’ll get back to you, but probably not until tomorrow - it’s already past my bedtime)

#ask

weaponizing maps

More proof that fetishizing “knowledge” (or transparency) without considering the political powerlines is irresponsible if not outright exploitative. (Previous post on “trojan horses of participatory mapping”)

Weaponizing Maps: Indigenous Peoples and Counterinsurgency in the Americas (2015) by Joe Bryan and Denis Wood

“'Map or be mapped,' the saying goes among those associated with the wave of participatory mapping that began in the 1980s. Weaponizing Maps gives this saying radically new meaning, with equal parts analytic depth and political charge. Readers inclined to use maps for causes of social justice will proceed fully informed of the daunting forces they are up against—from the counterinsurgency designs of the world’s most powerful military to ostensibly progressive scholars who deploy the fine tradition of participatory mapping toward dubious ends.” —Charles R. Hale, PhD, Director, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, University of Texas at Austin

“Joe and Denis trace how maps, over and over and over again, perform vital discursive work, how they transform territory into property, how they create facts, and how those facts seem to, time and time again, serve the particular interest of the state and/or capital at the expense of certain groups of people.” —Human Geography

From Chapter 8 (p 148-149) on the Bowman Expeditions in Weaponizing Maps

In retrospect, it’s easy— perhaps too easy— to see the México Indígena project as an inevitable weaponization of indigenous mapping... “indigenous communities” whose collective rights to property, recognized in the aftermath of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, were actively slated for conversion to individual titles under the auspices of sweeping land reforms introduced in 1993.

... Most of these lands were formally recognized as ejidos, created through the restitution of lands to agricultural workers upon the dissolution of large estates or haciendas. Another category of communal property, the comunidad agraria or comunidad indígena, recognized existing forms of communal land tenure and often closely followed colonial-era arrangements. Both categories worked well enough on paper, accommodating revolutionary demands that rights to land belonged to those who worked it, and establishing a regime of collective property rights that functioned alongside private property rights. In practice they proved problematic for state officials who, among other challenges, were notoriously vexed in their efforts to map these lands and properly register their ownership. Their indeterminacies and ambiguities created what historian Raymond Craib has termed a “fugitive landscape” that at once escaped official control and abounded with opportunities for malfeasance and illegality. In the wave of the market-oriented reforms of the 1990s, Mexican officials targeted this this fugitive landscape for “regularization.”

...To achieve these goals— of dissolving communal lands and registering private property— Mexican officials created PROCEDE [an acronym for the Program for Certification of Ejidal Rights and Titling of Urban Lots]. As with land regularization programs elsewhere, PROCEDE required the production of new surveys and maps as a crucial first step toward regularization. These surveys and maps did not necessarily reflect on-the-ground tenure arrangements so much as create, in the abstract, an imagined order on which regularization could be modeled. The program had immediate and far-reaching implications for rural Mexico that went well beyond the simple titling of land. As the México Indígena team put it, “For thousands of indigenous communities in Mexico, the PROCEDE program represents a silent revolution, undoing social property and changing communal ownership patterns that in some cases date back to pre-Colombian times.” Much as allotment policies were used to dissolve tribally held lands in the United States in the late 1800s, PROCEDE actively sought to incorporate indigenous lands in Mexico into the market through registration of individual rights and subsequent privatization. The effort amounted to assimilation by economic means, relying on the market to overcome centuries of political and economic marginalization frequently justified in terms of race.

Raymond Craib’s research looks fascinating by the way.

Cartographic Mexico: A History of State Fixations and Fugitive Landscapes (2004)

In Cartographic Mexico, Raymond B. Craib analyzes the powerful role cartographic routines such as exploration, surveying, and mapmaking played in the creation of the modern Mexican state in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such routines were part of a federal obsession—or “state fixation”—with determining and “fixing” geographic points, lines, and names in order to facilitate economic development and political administration. As well as analyzing the maps that resulted from such routines, Craib examines in close detail the processes that eventually generated them. Taking central Veracruz as a case in point, he shows how in the field, agrarian officials, military surveyors, and metropolitan geographers traversed a “fugitive landscape” of overlapping jurisdictions and use rights, ambiguous borders, shifting place names, and villagers with their own conceptions of history and territory.

The archive in the field: document, discourse, and space in Mexico•s agrarian reform, Journal of Historical Geography (2010)

Abstract: The archive in the field: document, discourse, and space in Mexico•s agrarian reform In the immediate aftermath of Mexico’s revolution (1910–1920), increasing numbers of surveyors, agronomists, and agrarian bureaucrats headed out to the countryside to implement the agrarian reforms promised in the decree of 1915 and the Constitution of 1917. In this essay I ask a very basic set of questions about the use, evaluation, and making of spatial knowledge in a revolutionary context: when bureaucrats went in to the field after the revolution, what did they do? What roles, if any, did local inhabitants themselves play in the processes that unfolded? And what constituted the acceptable body of knowledge -- the archive -- necessary to resolve persistent boundary questions that impeded the reform?

Relocating Cartography, Postcolonial Studies (2009)

481-482: The scholarly trend in recent decades has been to view scientific activities such as surveying and mapmaking as two cogs in an imperial machine*a ‘scopic regime’*grinding across far-flung colonies and distant landscapes...

The importance of such work should not be underestimated. For one, it initiated (or at least dramatically extended) a turn away from a focus on maps as generally mimetic representations, as unproblematic ‘statements of facts about the earth’s surface’; rather, it sought to situate maps within a social, cultural and political world and as products of practices that were integral to the history of cartography

Second, such work served as a corrective to the celebratory, legitimation narratives*populated by bold explorers, objective scientists, and mimetic maps*characteristic of much of the history of cartography.

485: Here [in his book Relocating Modern Science] Raj intersects with a welcome, if long-overdue, shift in emphasis in the history of cartography in recent years: a recognition that the history of cartography needs to pay attention to the role of people other than imperial scientists, explorers, and bureaucrats in the acquisition, circulation and creation of spatial knowledge and representations.

#cartography #critical geography #geography #mexico

The Role of a Social Worker: Part 1

So, I just finished my first full week of classes, and I’ve already learned so much about myself, this field, and the type of work that I’ll be doing.

For those that are new here, I’m earning my MSW at the University of Michigan with a concentration in Social Policy and Evaluation in Community Systems. I’m super passionate about organizing and community building, and I want my future to involve working for an organization analyzing policy, and also building coalitions. I’m super passionate about racial justice, and LGBTQ justice, but right now reproductive justice is what I’m into the most.

During our orientation week, students were required to take a SEED mini course. The course consisted of two all-day meetings on Tuesday and Thursday and were used to acclimate students to classes on the graduate level, and allow us to make friends in a smaller setting.

My SEED mini course was Civil Rights with Professor Barry Checkoway. It was honestly such a great course, but it’s almost difficult for me to articulate why. The course mainly consisted of discussions about our own personal ethics, communicating those ethics to others, the values we hold within our social work practice, the values we hold within our own personal lives, and the disconnect that often occurs between the two. Here are some notes that I jotted down after reflecting on class discussion.

- The role of a social worker is not to “give a voice to the voiceless.” It’s to realize that every client, and every group has a voice. However due to systems of oppression, there are those who’s voices are often ignored. The role of the social worker is to listen to those raising their voices, empower them, connect them to community, all while working to dismantle the systems in place that cause people to go unheard.

- The difference between social workers and other helping professions is that we are truly radical. Even on a clinical level. It’s our responsibility to help others with their problems, while interrogating the larger systemic roots of these problems.

I’ve also been fortunate to form friendships with people in my program. They have already pushed me in ways that I did not know were possible. All of my new friends are so experienced in the field, and we share similar interests. However, I find that my classmates appear to be open to conversations that push us, and cause us to be uncomfortable. Of course, no one is perfect. In a cohort of 400 people, I’ve already experienced some microagressions. Though, after this summer, they impact me in a different way. I find myself more open to seeing people as full human beings, instead of people who have just offended me. This doesn’t mean that I seek them out for friendship, it just means that I recognize that they have an identity outside of someone who has hurt me.

Which brings me to my next point. Learning about social work is difficult in the sense that it really works to change the way you think. Despite the fact that I have leftist views, I’m the first to say that I am not open-minded. There are things I think are okay, and there are things that I think are wrong. I’m usually not open to changing these views, and I’m not usually open helping people that I can’t develop empathy for. Social work pushes back against that.

-We have to respect people, even though we may usually hate them, or completely disagree with them. We have to find humanity in those we have previously dehumanized. This feels so unnatural.

This unnaturalness and conflict caused me to analyze the difference between my work self, my organizing self, and my whole self. In the real world, I move differently. I cut people off, and I shelter myself by maintaining friendships with those that I have similarities with. In organizing, I work with those I may disagree with on small things, but share a larger political ideology with. I may still dispose of people, and I often do not treat my comrades the way that I would treat a close friend that I cared about.

-In social work, I see that everyone has inherent value and worth. I treat my clients with respect, even if it is not given. I empower my clients even if they are not similar to me.

Lastly, I have a friend that is also earning her MSW, in a clinical focused program. Our friendship has honestly had it’s ups and downs. We are currently close again after not talking for 5 months. Though the break was difficult, we both share a passion for helping people, which is what I think makes our friendship so strong. We were discussing my professor Dr. Andrew Grogan-Kaylor who has conducted extensive research on corporal punishment. After analyzing 50 years worth of research, he was able to conclude that spanking served no benefit. My friend and I have had several discussions on spanking because she believes that conversations around corporal punishment are often void of an analysis around race, class, and upbringing. When I told her about my professor’s research we had a discussion about how we would most likely not spank our children if we had any, but also had some thoughts on calling those that spank their child (actual spanking), abusers.

-Condemning people without analyzing the roots of why they engage in certain behaviors isn’t a good social work practice. We don’t have to agree with the reasoning behind people’s actions, but if we do not know the cause of certain behaviors, how can we effectively eliminate them.

-We can have opinions on what is right and wrong. It’s important that we do. But in the field of social work, we measure our success by positive outcomes with patients. While we use our emotions, we also use tools and strategy.

There you have it, this week’s brain dump. Of course this is only after week one. We are all learning and pushing ourselves. The views I hold now may shift by next week, but also by the end of the semester. Thanks for joining me!

-Kristina

#organizing #msw #social #social work #social worker #community organizing