Resources

Web Resources on Poverty

The Campaign for America's Future
A Progressive Site. You can access Straight Talk by downloading the Adobe Acrobat Free Reader:

Then, download Straight Talk from the Handbook for Activists, on the The Campaign for America's Future

Straight Talk, a Report by Policy Analysts on The Big Issues, states: "We seek to share these ideas with the widest possible range of activists – not only progressive political candidates, whether Democrats, Republicans, or independents, but activists from the movements for social justice."

The issues they propose are:

1. "Strengthening Families, Investing in America"
2. "Sharing Prosperity, Rewarding Work"
3. "Strengthening Democracy, Renewing Community"

   Internet Resources

   Poverty and Race Research Action Council
   Site under construction. Up soon. Link added July 3, 1999.

   Dissent
   Political Journal. Link added on July 3, 1999.

   The Official Site of the Democratic National Committee

   Americans for Democratic Action

   Jeff Cohen's Progressive Media Critique

   Center for Policy Alternatives
   Under Publications, look at the executive summary of "Unfunded Mandates:Myths and Realities," then look at Hirschman's Rhetoric of Reaction, and see if you can understand how some of these myths arose from the rhetoric patterns Hirschman identifies.

   Institute for Research on Poverty

   Poverty Links

   Poverty Links
   from Institute for Research on Poverty. Link added July2, 1999.

   Hardcopy Resources on Discourse Skills

   I have not yet had time to hunt for these sources. They came to me through my colleagues in social construction. But their titles suggest that these are some of the places we need to search for a little thievery of their theory. Their titles suggest public discourse in the Habermasian sense. And so we should find information that will transfer to the interdependent roles of the student and teacher within the academic institution, and, perhaps, even yield some testable hypotheses.

   I know that some social constructionists will frown upon the empirical testing of hypotheses. But if we are to spark discourse in the academy that will alter the present privileged hierarchical system, we will need every tool at our disposal to break their denial mechanisms. There is always the risk that in using the tools of the adversary, you will fall into the adversary's thinking, when that is precisely what you wish to challenge. Reflexive methodology, grounded theory, good faith hearings for all validity claims should protect us. May the force be with us.

   Comments on these sources welcome from those of you who have the time to hunt for them now. June 28, 1999.

   • W. Barnett Pearce, "On Putting Social Justice in the Discipline of Communication and Putting Enriched Concepts of Communication in Social Justice Research and Practice," Journal of Applied Communication Research, 26, 1998, 272-278.

   • Lawrence R. Frey, W. Barnett Pearce, Mark Pollock, Lee Artz and Bren Ortega Murphy, "Looking for Justice in All the Wrong Places: On a Communication Approach to Social Justice," Communication Research, in press.

   • W. Barnett Pearce, "On Putting Social Justice in the Discipline of Communication and Putting Enriched Concepts of Communication in Social Justice Research and Practice," Journal of Applied Communication Research, 26, 1998, 272-278.

   • Frey, Lawrence, Mark A. Pollock, Lee Artz & W. Barnett Pearce, "From Medium and Context to Praxis and Process: Transforming the Undergraduate Communication Curriculum," World Communication, 25, 1996, 79-90.

   • W. Barnett Pearce and Kim Pearce, "'Listening for the Wisdom in the Public's Whining...' or Working to Construct Better Patterns of Public Communication: A Description and Some Reflections on 'The Cupertino Community Project: Voices and Visions'", in Peter Lang and Caroline Whalley, eds., Managing on the Edge of Uncertainty. In press.

   • W. Barnett Pearce, "Communication, Community and Democracy," unpublished paper presented as a Keynote Address at the Australia and New Zealand Communication Association annual convention, Brisbane, Australia, July, 1996.