Ethnography in Organizations (Qualitative Research Methods)

This book extends the current discourse on the role of cultural knowledge in qualitative research, especially research conducted by women of color within their own community. Each author reports on her attempts to conceptualize herself as a researcher while simultaneously trying to honor her cultural connectedness and knowledge.

As women researchers analyzing the personal and professional contexts in which their research was conducted, the authors argue that their gender, race, religion, and status have played critical roles in their research agendas. They offer a female perspective, though not a feminist critique per se, for they believe that gender does play a significant role in their research efforts. Equally important, they explore the role that race has played in their research, whether as women of color or white women conducting research among people of color.

In reflecting on how their unique positionality allows them to understand relationships across many boundaries, the authors observe how, in most cases, because of their position as women and/or people of color, they have not had some of the traditional problems associated with access to multicultural sites. However, they have encountered other issues and they share how, as researchers, they met and resolved these issues for their particular settings. Each author also discusses how, in addressing these issues, she labored to meet the standards of academia, often at a personal cost.

This book challenges existing paradigms by questioning the assumption of objectivity in research. It is essential reading--informative, provocative, and engaging--for researchers and students in research methods, women's studies, critical theory, and cross-cultural studies.

The Worst Tax?: A History of the Property Tax in America (Studies in Government & Public Policy)

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The Worst Tax?: A History of the Property Tax in America (Studies in Government & Public Policy)
Glenn W. Fisher
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Public Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0700611207

The frequent scapegoat of rebellious taxpayers, yet essential for the functioning of modern local governments, the property tax has a long and controversial history. Fisher's richly detailed account reveals the fundamental difficulties confronting all past attempts at designing an equitable and efficient system of property taxation during the past two centuries.

The general property tax--a locally administered tax ostensibly levied at equal rates on all wealth--evolved out of the struggle for political and economic equality in the early American republic. It was, as Fisher shows, consistent with Jacksonian democratic principles that kept the tax power decentralized, limited, and close to home, while producing sufficient revenue to support state and local government even in thinly populated frontier states.

But as new states and their constitutions emerged throughout the nineteenth century, many citizens criticized the Jacksonian approach for its inconsistencies and inequities. Advocating principles long-associated with Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists, these critics called for uniform taxes centrally administered by professional bureaucracies. This tension between Jacksonian and Hamiltonian principles is an integral part of Fisher's story and remains unresolved as our local governments continue to cope with the conflict between their revenue needs and the desire for equitable taxation.

Drawing upon economic, legal, political, and public administration perspectives, Fisher has fashioned an illuminating chronicle of popular government and intergovernmental relations (federal, state, and local) that will be of equal interest to scholars, students, local governments, and reform-minded taxpayers.