Race and Social Equity

Equity versus equality: Discourses and practices within decentralized welfare‐to‐work programs in California

“…The U.S. anti-discrimination protections and practices, however, stand out by guaranteeing equity while simultaneously hindering the pursuit of it. We assume that administrations are nervous (Gooden, 2014) to contend with potential lawsuits related to unequal treatment as enshrined through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and hence are anxious about embracing the equity framework wholeheartedly. Although CalWORKs currently implements diverse innovative policy changes (e.g., CalWORKs 2.0 and FS), and has begun to adopt a racial equity plan (e.g., through multi-lingual documentation and diversifying the workforce), CalWORKs has not challenged the equality discourse.…”

“…First, we used the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, MAXQDA, to code documents and interviews through an inductive-deductive interplay (Kelle & Kluge 2010). By drawing on equity/equality frameworks (Espinoza, 2007;Gooden, 2006, 6;Gooden, 2014) and discourse theory (Bacchi, 2009;Keller, 2011), a coding scheme of six master codes was generated deductively; (a) equity/equality; (b) differences; (c) problems; Three different researchers performed this first step, discussing their understanding of subcodes regularly in order to guarantee consistent interpretation.…”

“…Second, utilizing the four criteria of social equity of the NAPA (Johnson & Svara, 2011, 20-22;Gooden, 2006, 6;Gooden, 2014), two researchers used MAXQDA to analyze every citation made in the coding system across the state and county level to reveal the predominant discursive patterns at these different levels. The total material we analyzed was about 40 pages long, containing 281 citations from documents and 225 citations from interviews.…”

“…In other cases, different groups might get differential treatment based upon their current and/or past inequities (Gooden, 2014). Accordingly, the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) defined social equity as "[F]air and equitable distribution of public services, and implementation of public policy" and developed four criteria to measure social equity: (a) procedural fairness; (b) access or distributional equity; (c) quality or process equity; (d) equity outcomes (Johnson & Svara, 2011, 20-22;Gooden, 2006, 6;Gooden, 2014). Drawing on Gooden's work (Gooden, 2006), we apply this framework by focusing on how devolved governmental administrations are responsible for equitable welfare policy implementation for all clients.…”

“…Few studies have explicitly focused on the question of how current TANF-programs tackle the issue of equality or equity. Gooden (2014) argues that social and racial equity has been a "nervous area of government" in U.S. public administration.…”