Institutional Entanglements: How Institutional Knots and Reverberating Consequences Burden Refugee Families
Research on administrative burdens has demonstrated that families experience significant costs in navigating different institutions. Yet studies have often focused more on the nature of the burdens that result from administrative rules than on the types of obstacles that produce these burdens. Less...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Russell Sage Foundation
2023-09-01
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| Series: | RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences |
| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1797739928304484352 |
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| author | Blair Sackett Annette Lareau |
| author_facet | Blair Sackett Annette Lareau |
| author_sort | Blair Sackett |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Research on administrative burdens has demonstrated that families experience significant costs in navigating different institutions. Yet studies have often focused more on the nature of the burdens that result from administrative rules than on the types of obstacles that produce these burdens. Less attention has also been paid to how families navigate multiple institutions simultaneously. Drawing on qualitative research with Congolese refugees resettled in the United States, we conceptualize how errors and mishaps in organizations tangled procedures into institutional knots, or complex blockages. We also show how some knots had a ripple effect as problems in one institution reverberated, leading to new, unrelated problems in different institutions. These institutional knots and subsequent reverberations were costly to resolve and a hindrance to upward mobility. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T14:05:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e4938845404f48cebfc155f9750d7e31 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2377-8253 2377-8261 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T14:05:13Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Russell Sage Foundation |
| record_format | Article |
| series | RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-e4938845404f48cebfc155f9750d7e312023-08-21T15:10:35ZengRussell Sage FoundationRSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences2377-82532377-82612023-09-0194114132https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2023.9.4.05Institutional Entanglements: How Institutional Knots and Reverberating Consequences Burden Refugee FamiliesBlair Sackett0Annette Lareau1Brown UniversityUniversity of PennsylvaniaResearch on administrative burdens has demonstrated that families experience significant costs in navigating different institutions. Yet studies have often focused more on the nature of the burdens that result from administrative rules than on the types of obstacles that produce these burdens. Less attention has also been paid to how families navigate multiple institutions simultaneously. Drawing on qualitative research with Congolese refugees resettled in the United States, we conceptualize how errors and mishaps in organizations tangled procedures into institutional knots, or complex blockages. We also show how some knots had a ripple effect as problems in one institution reverberated, leading to new, unrelated problems in different institutions. These institutional knots and subsequent reverberations were costly to resolve and a hindrance to upward mobility.administrative burdenrefugeesstreet-level bureaucratsnormal accidentsorganizations |
| spellingShingle | Blair Sackett Annette Lareau Institutional Entanglements: How Institutional Knots and Reverberating Consequences Burden Refugee Families RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences administrative burden refugees street-level bureaucrats normal accidents organizations |
| title | Institutional Entanglements: How Institutional Knots and Reverberating Consequences Burden Refugee Families |
| title_full | Institutional Entanglements: How Institutional Knots and Reverberating Consequences Burden Refugee Families |
| title_fullStr | Institutional Entanglements: How Institutional Knots and Reverberating Consequences Burden Refugee Families |
| title_full_unstemmed | Institutional Entanglements: How Institutional Knots and Reverberating Consequences Burden Refugee Families |
| title_short | Institutional Entanglements: How Institutional Knots and Reverberating Consequences Burden Refugee Families |
| title_sort | institutional entanglements how institutional knots and reverberating consequences burden refugee families |
| topic | administrative burden refugees street-level bureaucrats normal accidents organizations |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT blairsackett institutionalentanglementshowinstitutionalknotsandreverberatingconsequencesburdenrefugeefamilies AT annettelareau institutionalentanglementshowinstitutionalknotsandreverberatingconsequencesburdenrefugeefamilies |