This essay traces the emergence of the Mexican and Mexico-related narconovela. It examines perspectives on drug trafficking and traffickers expressed in novels by Elmer Mendoza, Leonides Alfaro, Gerardo Cornejo, Homero Aridjis, Arturo Perez-Reverte, and Paul Flores. The variety of positions taken refutes the tendency of the Mexican mainstream…

Intergroup dialogue is a public process designed to involve individuals and groups in an exploration of societal issues such as politics, racism, religion, and culture that are often flashpoints for polarization and social conflict. This article examines intergroup dialogue as a bridging mechanism through which social workers in clinical, other…

At the same time as youth crime in the UK is falling, there has been an increase in the numbers of young people in custody together with an explosion of social policy initiatives aimed at young people deemed to be "at risk" of becoming criminal and focused upon the prevention of future offending and inclusion in mainstream society. This…

This book presents a study of three major American, university-based feminist journals and through them the themes of politics and scholarship in the feminist production of knowledge. The study used "Signs: a Journal of Women in Culture and Society" (University of Chicago Press), "Feminist Studies" (based at the University of…

This paper identifies project-based curriculum elements to increase postsecondary students' sense of political efficacy and their political interest, knowledge, and participation. It evaluates factors correlated with low levels of voting and the implementation of registration activities as remedies; it then introduces curriculum elements based on…

Administering a writing program has never been easy, and the issue of political correctness has added a new dimension to this difficult task. At the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), a controversy began when a cluster of statues, presented to the school by the graduating class, was attacked as being sexist and racist. According to the…

Educational issues of concern to southwestern state legislatures are reviewed in this educational policy bulletin. Information from a survey of legislative education committee members and legislative aides in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas is used to develop profiles of each state's unique educational concerns and political…

This study guide is designed to be used by any group of people interested in examining and strengthening the ways in which politics works tody. An argument is made that politics suffers because U.S. society largely has lost a strong sense of public life--a challenging, diverse, and dynamic arena beyond one's immediate family and friendship…

Recognizing that increasing pressure for greater accountability has accompanied recent economic changes, this book presents 11 articles on literacy evaluation and assessment. They are: (1) "Evaluation: A Political Issue" (Wendy Crebbin); (2) "Understanding Evaluation" (Kaye Lowe and Bill Bintz); (3) "A Difficult Balance:…

The 1989 defeat by voters in Fremont (California) of the nation's first measure to fund child care services at the local level provides valuable lessons for generating public support for child care services. Information was gathered from interviews with 23 city policymakers and administrators, from campaign materials, and from participant…

A feminist newspaper, "The Revolution," published between 1868 and 1870 filled a void in the popular press of the time, proclaiming the necessity of equal rights for women in all areas of life. Owned by Susan B. Anthony and edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the paper repeatedly emphasized the importance of education of women. Four major themes…

Focus of this article is on the city as a fulcrum of black power, both potential and actual; white economic control of the city; the lures of the suburbs for blacks; and, the costs of the city's renewal to black people. Several strategies for black survival in the city are recommended. (Author/JM)

Last year, 67,000 children in Jefferson County were bussed every day; this year, there was violent and angry opposition to the bussing of a few thousand additional children, the difference being that these children were to be bussed because of court-ordered desegregation of the merged Louisville and Jefferson County school systems. (Author/JM)

As part of a course entitled "The Politics of Poverty," students at the University of Deleware worked in social work organizations for the poor. Analysis of the program's effectiveness as measured by an opinion survey of participating students is included. (DE)

A new kind of public school -- the conservative alternative -- stresses discipline, achievement, and old-fashioned virtues. (Author)