In this paper, we examine the experiences of lower division transfer students at a diverse island campus. We conducted this study to increase our understanding of why lower division transfer students are one of the most at-risk populations in relation to completing their education at Island University. The question “how might the institution better serve these students in order to increase retention” guided our research process. The intended goal was practical—to create new programming that facilitated the process of transferring to Island University and increased student retention—specifically in relation to lower division transfer students. The conclusions drawn from the data also have important implications for a more general understanding of the problem of creating socially just educational systems, which is highlighted by the issue of student retention—especially on diverse campuses that serve economically disadvantaged communities.
In this passionate and timely study, Lindy Hern brings together decades of personal involvement in the campaign for national health insurance with a scholar's immersion in social movement theory. This work should be read by all interested in the history of the campaign for Medicare for All, and by all looking to understand movements for social change."-Gerald Friedman, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA "To date, no one has taken on the monumental task of documenting the healthcare justice movement in a thorough, comprehensive way. Yet Hern not only does so in her book, she also participates in the movement for single-payer, working for Medicare for All coverage for every person. Hern demonstrates her wide breadth of knowledge in her well-researched and well written book. Never before has the single-payer community of activists had such a rich accounting of the people who are driving the movement ever closer to the day when every person in America has access to truly high quality care without financial barriers." -Donna Smith, Advisory Board Chair and former Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, former National Organizer for National Nurses United, and star of the Michael Moore film SiCKO "Single-payer health care was kept on the nation's agenda for decades by the organizing and the protests of thousands of dedicated citizen-activists. Lindy Hern's inspiring analysis of the making of grass-roots history provides us with a democratic vision of America to last through troubled times."
The recent rise of "Medicare for All" in American political discourse was many years in the making.Behind this rise is a movement composed of grassroots activists and organizations focused on the goal of establishing a single-payer health care system in the United States. I examine the ways in which activists used narrative to interpret opportunity within their historically specific environments to work towards this goal. I find that while the Single Payer Movement's narrative practice during the Clinton era was focused on opportunity within the political sphere, the focus in the Obama era shifted to mobilizing the public sphere, or grassroots opportunity. This was related to the critique that the Obama Administration was engaging in "politics as usual", which was defined as the "enemy" of "real" health care reform. This narratively produced critique is tied to the anti-establishment turn that factors into the current era of American politics.
While applied sociology can take on many forms, it has been argued that public sociology is very much connected to the work of social movements. In this paper, I discuss my own scholar activism within the Movement for Single Payer Health Care Reform and its implications for the grassroots mobilization of this movement. This paper is, in part, a response to the call to develop discussions about the applied sociological process to better understand the "specific kinds of engagement" that make up radical public and social change-oriented applied sociology. The role of scholar activist is another avenue through which applied sociologists can better understand the social world and promote positive social change. Scholar activists can work within social movements to build theory about social movement mobilization through an interactive and empowering process that highlights the epistemological authority of movement participants. Scholar activists also act as a medium through which the collective experiences and narratives of social movement actors can be understood and shared with a wider audience. In this paper, I unpack one part of this process by engaging in the practice of reflexivity through which I analyze my role as a scholar activist within the Movement for Single Payer Health Care Reform.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.