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Beyond Heterogeneity: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities Researching Policy at the Nexus of Race and Place

Thursday, November 13, 8:30 to 10:00am, Property: Grand Hyatt Seattle, Floor: 1st Floor/Lobby Level, Room: EA Amphitheater

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Policy research has long documented the unequal administration and dissemination of public income supports and human service programs across regions, counties, and states. In this work, scholars have demonstrated variation in program enrollment, participation, and outcomes across and between racially minoritized groups, pointing to the racist underpinnings of devolved policy authority. However, racism does not manifest uniformly across space; it is shaped by historical and local histories, demographic patterns, and institutional arrangements. As a result, emerging work has considered examining the relationship between race and geographic contexts in policy design and implementation. For example, scholars have found that state-level decisions regarding the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program are tied to racial demographics, and states with larger African American populations tend to adopt less generous and more restrictive TANF policies. Therefore, how safety net programs are designed, implemented, and experienced by participants vary not only by race, but by how race is constructed and mobilized in specific geographic settings.


The purpose of this panel is to invite reflections on how researchers can rigorously and ethically examine the geographically contingent nature of race in policy research. The first paper examines the distributive and consequential outcomes of state Medicaid rules by estimating associations between state policy generosity and women’s economic outcomes around childbirth. It provides examples of different quantitative methodological approaches to link racialized differences in individual outcomes to state-level policy contexts. The second paper This paper examines how racialized ideas of deservingness shape the implementation of administrative burdens and employment support for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) in SNAP. Using a disaggregated and place-based methodological approach, the analysis shows how racial hierarchies within and across groups influence state policy contexts and calls attention to the limitations of conventional racial classifications in quantitative policy research. The third paper expands the examination of the intersection of spatial and racial inequality using regime models. The author argues that historical legacies of race relations embedded in place help explain the group differences in interactions with state institutions. The author offers placial regime regression models as an analytical approach to better explain the influence of place on policy administration in the child support enforcement system. 


Uncovering the policy mechanisms that reproduce inequality across race and place is crucial to building a safety net that is responsive to the economic needs of individuals across geographical contexts and experience of racism and xenophobia. Yet doing so is conceptually and methodologically challenging using conventional methodological tools which were not designed to interrogate structural inequality or racism (Castillo & Gillborn, 2023; Zuberi, 2003). The papers in this panel apply various methods and invite deeper conversation around how policy researchers might use quantitative methodological approaches to interrogate policy pathways and outcomes at the nexus of race and place. These conversations are essential as researchers navigate a new political climate where policy retrenchment and state authority in the provision of social assistance is likely and conversations around equity-oriented research are discouraged.

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