Melissa Gutierrez November 3, 2010

TANF and the limits it imposes on recipient’s access to higher education by promoting work first

Upon the examination of the text of PROWRA, specifically the language of TANF, it is explicit that the federal government, and through granting the states broad discretion over the implementation of TANF, the state government, are denying recipients access to self-sufficiency. The government, Congress and the state and local governments, are denying recipients a genuine opportunity to obtain self-sufficiency, through the denial of access, the right, for a recipient to pursue a higher education. This higher education would lead to self-sufficiency because recipients would become more marketable. They would be more marketable because a degree would allow recipients to obtain the skills and training necessary to be competitive in the market place, hence economically independent. Through the federal and state government’s emphasis of promoting and funding of work first, they have explicitly limited recipient’s access to necessary educational training. This is an example of unequal citizenship between recipients and non-recipients. Further issues of unequal citizenship arise between recipients in different states because of the differing implementations of TANF and various definitions of what constitutes a work activity. Because welfare is a product of federalism, the states have had broad discretion over eligibility and sanction requirements, and the rules that it requires for recipients to remain eligible for assistance. TANF in particular grants the states more power over the structure of the system, arguably the most power that the states have had over recipients since welfare’s enactment. I will examine the policy history of the American welfare system to discover when access to education became an issue for recipients. Then I will focus on why TANF explicitly limits access to higher education. I will end illustrating how this is problematic and suggesting that access to higher education would offer recipients genuine self-sufficiency, an opportunity to survive and support themselves and their families, after their time limit is up.

Through the promotion and implementation of work first over policies in TANF, TANF has denied broad and equal access to higher education, which has denied recipients the opportunity to become self-sufficient and independent. I am going to examine the article Welfare Reform and Enrollment in Postsecondary Education to examine how TANF has affected educational rates of recipients. I have yet to read the entire article. I will use this statistical evidence to illustrate how the federal policy of TANF limits recipient’s ability to obtain a higher education. I also plan on using the book Shut out: low income mothers and Higher education in post welfare America by Valerie Polakow to illustrate how TANF is only harming single mother’s opportunities for self-sufficiency.

A low wage job is insecure for a single mother headed family, offering no real skills and making the single mother no more marketable. In contrast, a degree, higher education, offers economic security by providing recipients marketable skills. Vivyan Adair is a professor who was a former welfare recipient, and she writes an article which discusses the fight to have work study counted toward TANF work activity. There is no Federal definition of what constitutes a work activity/vocational training. The federal government imposes numbers that the states must meet to receive funding, such as participation rates in a work activity. Al though the federal government imposes on the states that only a small percentage of its caseload can be receiving educational training g at a time; states have ways to get around these requirements, as discussed below regarding the article in claim 2.

TANF allows the states broad financial discretion over implementing TANF through giving the states block grants. Many states and localities chose to allow much less than 30% of its case load to receive higher education. This unequal access to higher education creates unequal citizenship between recipients in different states as well as between recipients within a state in different localities. The states are following the guidelines of the federal government or using the freedom they were given to deny more recipients than required by TANF (70%) access to higher education through the promotion of work first. Many states are barring recipients access to higher education after an associate’s degree, some don’t even allow that to count. In New York City, a mother is told that a four year college is not an approved training program, and that hours studying for that degree and in class will not be covered by childcare costs. A recipient will have to work 35 hours a week to stay eligible and also find childcare and pay for it themselves while going to college full time if they want to pursue a Bachelor’s degree.

Al though TANF grants the states broad discretion when implementing TANF, “TANF discourages states from allowing welfare recipients to participate in education and training programs,”¹ Furthermore, the article discusses how only “30%” of a state’s caseload can count education as a work activity for a “12 month period.” This limits a recipient’s ability to higher education explicitly, and further limits a state’s ability to count education as a work activity for a greater number of recipients. A right to obtain higher education if one can obtain it through financial aid is also denied by the states through there criteria of what constitutes “educational training.” Access to higher education would mean the right to have the hours one spends in a four year institution counted as part of the recipients weekly work requirement. Many states and localities determine individually for their locality the educational programs that are eligible to be counted as part of the weekly work requirement for recipients. Many of these localities do not include four year colleges as an eligible work activity, and so through the use of sanctions for noncompliance, welfare agencies deny recipients the opportunity to go to school by also making these hours ineligible for the child care that is subsidized during the hours of the work activity to be used toward the classes. Many individual states and localities choose policies that promote “work first” and ultimately believe that any job, low-wage, temporary, insecure, is a good job. Despite evidence that women who obtain a higher education have an almost 100% rate of remaining off of public assistance, the numbers of recipients in college has dropped, as noted by authors Ellen Reese and Felicia Kornbluh. This is due to the fact that local welfare agencies promote work as opposed to long term economic security and authentic self-sufficiency. The federal government granted the states the most freedom they’ve had with welfare implementation since the New Deal, through the enactment of TANF, allowing states to deny access to education among other things.

In the article State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Education under TANF, the author observes what effect welfare reform has had on recipient’s ability to obtain and maintain jobs which would support themselves and their families. While it was discovered that more people were working, it was also discovered that they were working in low wage jobs, with few if any skills, hence limited opportunity, if any, for growth. This article links higher education to the real success of welfare reform, allowing people to leave and stay off of TANF. This article discusses how many states implemented their welfare to work programs, focusing on “basic adult education” and “job search,” approaches that the author notes were unsuccessful in regard to recipients obtaining employment opportunities that would lead to self-sufficiency. “A state has broad discretion in defining what it means to be “engaged in work” for purposes of this requirement and a state can choose to count participation in postsecondary education (or other education or training activities) as being engaged in work for purposes of the 24-month requirement,” ² Page 6-7 offers various types of strategies that states can use to provide access to higher education for those in need both within the TANF guidelines and outside of them. Through the “use of state maintenance effort funds” states can aid in the funding on recipients during their time in a four year college. (In order to get around time limits, have this activity count within the time frame). “Individual Development Accounts” “Data on state policies indicate that there are 22 states with policies allowing participation in postsecondary degree programs for longer than the 12 months countable as work under federal law.”³ If we adopted a policy along the lines of Illinois welfare policy, reform could be successful, “In 1999, a number of states took legislative or executive action to increase access to postsecondary education and training. Illinois has an especially innovative policy: the state “stops the clock” for purposes of TANF time limits while a TANF recipient is a full-time postsecondary degree student and requires no other work activity, provided the recipient maintains at least a 2.5 grade point average.”⁴ Policies like this would enable recipients to truly successes and to maintain self-sufficiency when leaving the roles, avoiding getting back on them. This article used statistical evidence to illustrate that while employment rose and rolls declined, many recipients were employed in jobs that kept them below the federal poverty level as well as a lack of employer based services such as health insurance. “A recent study of a national sample of women who had left welfare found that among those who were employed, wages averaged $6.61, above the minimum wage but at only the 20th percentile of wages for all workers. Only 23% of the employed former recipients were receiving employer-provided health insurance. For employed TANF recipients, average earnings in 1998 were $553 a month.”⁵

States with success stories after implementing programs focusing on educational attainment “The recent, very impressive results from the Portland, Oregon site of the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) confirm earlier research findings–the most effective welfare-to-work programs are those that have a central focus on employment, but also make substantial use of education and training as a tool for helping recipients become employable and find better jobs.

Areas such as Florida, California, Portland, and Baltimore have enacted successful welfare to work programs. Statistical evidence illustrates the benefits of attaining a higher education “An analysis of the labor market returns for postsecondary education found that women with associate degrees earn between 19-23% more than other women, even after controlling for differences in who enrolls in college. The same study, which analyzed nearly twenty years of longitudinal data while attempting to adjust for differences in ability and family background, found that women who obtained a bachelor’s degree earned 28-33% more than their peers. Other studies have found that each year of postsecondary education increases earnings by 6-12%.20 In addition, studies that have tracked welfare recipients who completed two or four-year degrees have found that about 90% of these graduates leave welfare and earn far more than other recipients.”⁶ Statistical evidence for educational attainment and higher wages, leaving poverty, staying off of welfare is further verified, “Census data also show a strong relationship between educational attainment, earnings, and the likelihood of being unemployed or out of the labor market.”⁷ What I found particularly useful about this article was that it offered the states ways within the existing framework to aid recipients in obtaining a higher education while simultaneously meeting TANF requirements. “A state may, unless otherwise prohibited by the law, spend TANF funds in any manner reasonably calculated to accomplish the purpose of the law. One purpose of the law is to provide assistance to needy families; another purpose is to end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work and marriage. Thus, any of the above postsecondary education related costs could be viewed as reasonably calculated to accomplish a purpose of TANF for members of needy families.”⁸ Furthermore, MOE funds can be used by states to aid in families achieving self-sufficiency. “Thus, it is clear that a state may choose to use TANF or MOE funds in support of postsecondary education if it wishes to do so.”⁹ This further illustrates that the states are choosing to limit recipient access to higher education, even beyond what TANF requires. “There are two principal work and participation requirements under TANF: federal participation rates (discussed below) and the 24-month requirement. While federal participation rate requirements are very specific as to what counts as participation and the consequences of a state’s failure to meet the rates, the 24-month requirement was written to allow very broad state discretion. It is up to each state to determine what counts as being “engaged in work” and a state can count participation in postsecondary education as being engaged in work for purposes of the 24-month requirement.”¹⁰ So, although TANF imposes limits on the states autonomy when implementing TANF, it never the less allows the states ways to grant recipients access to higher education. “While Congress enacted a specific list of what counts as being “engaged in work” for purposes of participation rates, Congress expressly said that for purposes of the 24-month requirement, an individual must be engaged in work “as defined by the state.” This was not a technicality in drafting; it was broadly recognized that states would have extensive discretion in defining the contents of the 24-month work requirements… While a state’s definition of being “engaged in work” must be within the bounds of reason, inclusion of work-preparation activities such as job search, job readiness, education and training can all be considered within the permissible activities that a state could include. Thus, there is no reason why the 24-month requirements need be a barrier to allowing access to postsecondary education in a state’s TANF program.”¹¹ Furthermore, states can use measures such as “state waivers” to grant recipients access to higher education. “HHS says that a state’s waiver demonstration will be considered to have a “work participation component” if the demonstration includes provisions that directly correspond to the work policies in Section 407 of the TANF statute.”¹² However, only “some states will be able to count postsecondary education toward participation rates to a greater extent, but only if the state asserts inconsistencies based on continuing a waiver until its expiration, and only if the state files the necessary certification with HHS.”¹³ This is a great start, a solution to the problem at the moment and allowing people more access now, yet this is not ideal. All recipients in every state need an equal right to be recognized to obtain/access higher education. Need a Broad liberal standard. The article further discusses how states can use a “caseload reduction credit” to fund access to higher education for TANF recipients. Ultimately however, I disagree that we should use funding for job training programs, I advocate we focus solely on advocating funds in a manner which would allow recipients access to higher education. This focus, I believe, will lead to greater marketability of the recipients, hence an even greater opportunity for self-sufficiency.

This unequal access to higher education in different states manifests in numerous types of unequal citizenship between different groups of people. The first type of unequal citizenship exists between recipients and non-recipients of public assistance. Recipients are forced to revoke their financial aid and the ability to go to college where as non-recipients are not penalized by their employers for going to school (that would be discrimination). There are numerous recipients in a given state who are eligible for financial aid and cannot go to school because of TANF. All the while, non-recipients who receive aid can go to school without anyone telling them that their education doesn’t count/restricting their access with financial penalties. People on SSI or unemployment, for example, are not told that in order to receive their benefits, they must drop out of school. Both the federal and state governments are limiting liberty, or our 14^th Amendment equal protection clause. Furthermore, the government is limiting vocational freedom by denying higher education as opposed to all education, and it is a common fact that people utilize higher education as a means to get out of poverty and/or climb the social/economic ladder, so the government is basically saying, “you’re too poor to ever be a doctor, the most you will and can ever be is a medical assistant, because that is all we will assist you in being.” This not only denies recipients the right to choose a career, it denies them the opportunity to gain skills necessary in today’s marketplace.

Furthermore, TANF creates/produces unequal citizenship between recipients of different states due to a) differing levels of access to higher education and b) differing standards of what constitutes vocational training/work activity. I’m going to examine the relationship between federalism and TANF regarding access to higher education. Currently, TANF produces unequal access to higher education in different states due to the broad control given to the states to implement welfare to work policies. Welfare reform (TANF) turned welfare (ADFC) from an individual entitlement to a state block grant. Welfare has always been a product of federalism, but through TANF, the states were given more power by the federal government. The states are allowed to have such vastly different standards and eligibility and sanction criteria and the states rules do not have to be held to any other national standard, other than minimal ones such as ensuring a given number of recipients are working at all times. Differences in the states promotion of work first/implementation of welfare to work programs, illustrates the unequal citizenship between recipients. Based on state by state determined eligibility and sanction criteria, there are state to state differences in recipient’s ability to obtain educational training on TANF, as well as interstate differences in localities definitions of approved training programs. This not only constitutes unequal citizenship between recipients in different states, but also unequal citizenship between recipients within a state.

Because resources are used to promote work first and insufficient vocational training programs, they are diverted from childcare that could allow for more recipients to pursue a higher education. Though the denial of access to higher education which would allow single mothers to earn a wage that would support her family, she is denied the option of being a self-sufficient single mother and supporting her family on her income. She gives up stay at home motherhood in an attempt to be a provider in a low wage job and go to school to get a better job. Due to this dilemma, not only must she forfeit the option of being a stay at home mother, she also has to accept that with current TANF policy, she will never be an adequate (above the poverty line) provider for her family.

“Not surprisingly, given their low skills and educational levels, many welfare recipients fare poorly in the labor market.”¹⁴ This is proof that through the denial of higher education, the opportunity to obtain marketable skills, predominantly single mothers recipients are being kept in a certain position in the labor market. TANF policies promote a system of patriarchy, focusing explicitly on the goal of raising marriage rates and curbing out of wedlock births, promoting the nuclear dominant American family type which denies single mothers the opportunity to become self-sufficient as single mothers. Additionally, while TANF claims that the key to self-sufficiency is employment, a low wage job does not produce self-sufficiency. True self-sufficiency would come with the recipients gaining marketable skills to be marketable in the labor force, which are currently gained through post-secondary education. Recipients who are merely thrown into the labor force with no or little skill sets become extremely dependent on will of employer, and this leaves room for oppression, harassment, and exploitation by the employer.

Access to higher education as a matter of women’s equality: The article The New Welfare Trap Case Managers, College Education, and TANF Policy found in the gender and society journal uses feminist policy analysis promotes access to higher education. Furthermore, I am attempting to use an affirmative action type argument to illustrate the historical exclusion of women from higher educational facilities. This type of argument will advocate allowing women to catch up in the race.

I am going to use the following book by Ellen Reese: Backlash against Welfare Mothers, Past and Present to discuss the barriers that TANF creates to limit or deny access to higher education. I am also going to use the following book by Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein: Making Ends Meet. This book provides empirical evidence for my argument. It discusses the fact that low wage work and welfare do not adequately support a family. Women in different states were interviewed to illustrate this reality. This illustrates that many single mother headed families do need subsistence, which they do not get from the market or from the welfare system. Chicago, Boston, San Antonio, and Charleston were some of the cities examined to prove that single mothers headed families could not survive merely on welfare and low wages, and certainly not on either alone. Many of these localities/states, and the federal government do not include four year colleges as an eligible work activity, and so through the use of sanctions for noncompliance, welfare agencies deny recipients the opportunity to go to school by also making these hours ineligible for the child care that is subsidized during the hours of the work activity to be used toward the classes. Despite evidence that women who obtain a higher education have an almost 100% rate of remaining off of public assistance, the numbers of recipients in college has dropped, as noted by authors Ellen Reese and Felicia Kornbluh. This is due to the fact that local welfare agencies promote work as opposed to long term economic security and authentic self-sufficiency.

I am also going to use the following book by Kenneth Neubeck, When Welfare Disappears: The Case for Economic Human Rights to further illustrate the necessity of higher education for single mother headed families. Neubeck illustrates why single mother recipients have particular difficulty staying off of or avoiding public assistance which is through systemic barriers such as a lack of access to education and job training skills that would allow single mothers to be more competitive in the job market and get out of poverty. “PROWRA reflects what some have called the “new paternalism.” The act subtly communicates a strong distrust of–if not disdain for–impoverished lone mothers even as it spells out measures to control them,” (Neubeck 31). “U.S. welfare policy has reflected and, in many ways, has reinforced society wide systems of class, gender, and racial inequality,” (Neubeck 32). Neubeck discusses the difficulty of single mothers and uses statistics of those on TANF, exiting, and the poverty rate to illustrate the harmful effects of TANF. I will also use articles from the book Women, the State, and Welfare by Linda Gordon to illustrate the denial of recipient’s access to higher education as a denial of gender equality. Furthermore, I will use the book Welfare: A Documentary History of U.S. Policy and Politics by Gwendolyn Mink and Rickie Solinger to further explore all of my claims in this paper. Mink notes that for economic purposes, the effects of the “labor market,” and wages, welfare was turned from an “income maintenance program” to a “wage supplement.”

1 Workforce Development Series: Built to Last: Why Skills Matter for Long Run Success in Welfare Reform By Karin Martinson and Julie Strawn April 2003 Brief No. 1

2 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 5

3 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 7

4 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 7

5 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 9

6 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 13-14

7 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 14

8 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 15

9 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 16

10 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 16-17

11  State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 17

12 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 21

13 State Opportunities to Provide Access to Postsecondary Educational Training Under TANF page 21

14 Workforce Development Series: Built to Last: Why Skills Matter for Long Run Success in Welfare Reform By Karin Martinson and Julie Strawn April 2003 Brief No. 1

Iceland is situated directly on top of the Earth’s tectonic plates, spreading over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Consequently, around one-third of all lava that has erupted from the Earth’s surface over the past 500 years has flowed out of Iceland’s surface, creating the rough lava fields that distinguish Iceland’s landscape.[1] This combination of warm surface heat, coupled with Iceland’s abundance of glaciers and the cold atmosphere of the Arctic Circle, creates geothermal activity below the surface and powerful rivers above it, making Iceland one of the most concentrated sources of geothermal and hydroelectric energy on Earth.[2] The vast majority of Iceland’s buildings are heated by geothermal energy and around 95 percent of Iceland’s electricity is derived from a combination of geothermal- and hydro-power.[3] The seemingly unlimited amount of geothermal energy and hydro-power makes Iceland attractive to heavy industry as a cheap and abundant source of electricity. Currently, the aluminum industry is the largest customer of geothermal energy, consuming 75.9 percent of all electricity generated in Iceland, surpassing residential consumption by 70 percent.[4]

Since the 2008 economic collapse, the auctioning of Iceland’s geothermal energy to foreign companies has increased.[5] The aluminum smelters that Alcoa has built in Iceland (which run on the extraction of geothermal energy) have dire, long-term consequences for Iceland’s economic, social and environmental future.[6] Alcoa’s presence in Iceland has met much opposition from the public, and has been the cause of protests, both in Iceland and from environmental agencies around the world, who warn of the global consequence that ruining one of the second largest masses of pristine wilderness left in Europe will have.[7] Projects such as the Karanhjuka dam, which displaced hundreds of animals and will eventually lead to the complete and irreversible draining of a large body of water, exemplifies why natural resource extraction is a short-term solution to Iceland’s economic woes.[8] It is vital for Iceland to find other solutions for creating revenue, solutions that will generate long-term employment and cause minimal exploitation to the environment. In what follows, I consider three such solutions.

Iceland applied for EU membership in July 2009, negotiations started in July 2010, and now the EU has opened accession talks. The European Commission recognizes that Iceland has already assimilated many of its national laws in accordance with EU laws.[9] But progress has halted because the EU demands Iceland resolve the continued dispute with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands over the money lost when the online Icesave bank collapsed.[10] Public opposition to joining the European Union is also a challenge. Media and polls document public fear that the EU will regulate fishing quotas and whaling.[11]

I argue for Iceland’s admission to the European Union (EU) and full adaptation of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). An internal working paper released in May 2010 by the European Commission maintains that EU member states could make €26 billion in profit annually by 2020 through auctioning emission permits, and as much as €928 million a year by 2012 through the auctioning of permits to airlines.[12] The profits Iceland could make, especially in light of their heavy airline traffic and vast geothermal- and hydro energy, will strengthen their economy considerably. Joining the EU will also ensure vital legal restrictions on excessive external exploitation of geothermal extraction[13] by means of stricter regulation through the full implementation of the EU ETS.[14] Fully implementing the EU ETS would also give Iceland further incentive to ease their dependency on renewing business contracts with Alcoa, and the planned expansion of aluminum smelters throughout Iceland, all of which have a devastating impact on local farming communities. [15]

Iceland will not join the EU unless Icelanders support the decision in a referendum that may be held in early 2012. According to three polls conducted by Gallup between May and September 2010, 69 percent of those asked oppose Iceland joining the EU. Politicians express worries that Iceland will no longer have a say with regards to EU laws.[16] This is a misconception. By joining the EU, Iceland would gain autonomy. Already a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), Iceland implements all laws of the common European market, except for agreements on fisheries and agricultural policy. Because a large majority of Iceland’s current laws are decided in Brussels, joining the EU means Iceland will have voting power with regards to laws already adopted by the Icelandic Parliament. Thus, Iceland would gain considerable autonomy by joining the EU.[17]

Second, I argue for wetland and wildlife restoration. This is in keeping with new legislation from the Environmental and Planning Ministry of Iceland, which proposes considerable limitation on foreign access to Iceland’s natural resources—the water, wetlands, glaciers, geothermal- and hydro energy for smelters.[18] Proposals from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change outline the importance, and potential profit, of implementing a legislative remedy to wetland restoration.[19] Restoring drained and degraded wetlands would reduce carbon, nitrous oxide and methane from the atmosphere—an innovative means for Iceland, and other countries, to meet their annual EU ETS emissions requirements.

Third, I argue for the commitment to fish stock restoration. Fish stock restoration is vital to the Icelandic economy as 60 percent of Icelandic exports are fish products.[20] In order to restore fishing stocks, there must be strict government regulation.  But citizens and politicians are also wary of outside intervention in national fishing matters, and fears are often publicly expressed that joining the EU will cause outside intervention in national quota laws.[21] Public distrust is exemplified by a history of fishing “wars” with the United Kingdom, most famously the Cod-wars.[22] To combat the documented dangers of fish depletion,[23] fishing stocks must be restored through stricter government regulation to ensure appropriate national laws are in place to protect Iceland’s fishing interests before the country joins the EU.

By joining the EU, Iceland would increase its legal autonomy in addition to increasing government revenue through the full implementation of the EU ETS. If wetland restoration is implemented as a means of restoring depleted wildlife, Iceland will be preserving its wildlife and increasing sustainability measures while simultaneously meeting annual EU ETS carbon emissions requirements, which in turn helps to offset pollution from heavy industry projects currently being executed. This will also save money for the government since they will not be forced to purchase offsets if they run over emissions limits, a scenario that is highly likely to occur according to data presented at the 2010 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.[24] Moreover, by restoring fishing stocks through stricter regulation of fishing quotas, a vital source of Iceland’s employment will be preserved.

1. Historical and Social Context

Iceland has only been an independent country since 1944, when it broke from Danish rule. For most of its existence as an independent country, Iceland’s economy has been dependent on the fishing and agricultural industry. During World War II, British forces occupied Iceland, and after the war Iceland joined NATO and Americans took over the army base that British forces previously occupied. This lead to a large influx of foreign capital, temporarily boosting the economy and creating service jobs for Icelanders on the base. The Americans eventually began to decrease their reliance on the army base in Iceland, and pulled troops out, decreasing employment for Icelanders and leaving them with the difficulty of maintaining much of the infrastructure that the Americans had built and paid for surrounding the base. Adding to economic and employment instability, in the 1980s there were strong fishing quotas enforced on Icelanders, which caused a decrease in the fishing industry and forced many fishermen to find new jobs.[25]

Over the past twenty years Iceland has been hit hard by the consequences of rapid urbanization which has left many of the former farming and fishing towns near empty and hungry for employment. Adding to the desperation is the declining fish stocks following fishing quotas that were imposed in the 1980s. As a result, the Icelandic Government entered into a 40-year contract with the American aluminum company Alcoa to supply hydroelectric power for aluminum smelters that have been built not far from Egilsstadir in a place known as Karahnjukar.[26] The idea was that the Alcoa aluminum smelter would produce around 400 jobs, and increase the service industry around Egilsstadir, allowing for an infusion of foreign capital and a diversification in the Icelandic economy for which everyone longed.[27] The reality has been quite different. Since the contract was signed in 2003, Alcoa has flooded the remote highland wilderness of Karahnjukar to create a reservoir, the tallest of its kind in Europe.[28] While these are not the only reasons why Iceland decided to welcome a 40-year contract with Alcoa, they are important in understanding the economic desperation that led the Icelandic government to seek out industrial alternatives.

Alcoa’s presence in Iceland has met much opposition from the public, and has been the cause of protests, both in Iceland and from environmental agencies around the world who warn of the dire, long-term consequences for Iceland’s economic, social and environmental future, as well as the global implications of ruining one of the second largest masses of pristine wilderness left in Europe.[29]

Until 2000, Iceland had not been successful in their efforts to attract heavy industry to the island with promises of cheap energy, due to the island’s isolation in the middle of the Atlantic and the relatively small, over educated and highly paid work forces of the population. [30]

The Iceland Nature Conservation Association (INCA) has opposed the Alcoa smelter projects from the beginning, and has been at the forefront of the fight for environmental justice in Iceland, along side the project Saving Iceland, demanding that Alcoa’s projects be subject to formal Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA). On May 4, 2000, a formal EIA report for the Karahjukar Dam Project was published, followed by a publication by the INCA in which an economic analysis of the project was made by Thorsteinn Sigurlaugsson, an economist, in which he stated: “The environmental impact of the development is within acceptable limits in light of the economic benefits which the proposed power plant will bring to the nation and the upswing of employment accompanying the sale of energy.” [31]

The criticism of the project prevailed, however, and in August 2001 the Physical Planning Agency of Iceland delivered its verdict against the Karahnjukar Dam Project, stating that the environmental consequences were far too great, and the economic benefits were unclear–a victory for environmentalists nation wide. In September 2001, the National Power Company, Landsvirkjun (who would be directly benefiting from the power that Alcoa would purchase to run the aluminum smelters), appealed the verdict from the Physical Planning Agency to the Environmental Minister, who is the highest authority on the matter according to the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment. At the end of December 2001, following much governmental pressure from the Conservative Party of Iceland who at the time had the majority of parliamentary seats, the Environmental Minister ruled in favor of the Karhnjukar Dam Project.[32]

Following the Environmental Minister’s verdict, there was much protest, and many written appeals to no prevail and in March 2002 the national daily newspaper of Iceland, Morgunbladid, announced that due to controversy and the uncertain environmental consequences, Norsk Hydro was opting out of the project. After a few frantic weeks, it was announced that Alcoa was replacing Norsk Hydro for negotiations.[33]

Despite widespread public and political criticism, in April 2002, the Icelandic parliament, Althingi, adopted a new legislation that empowered the Minister of Industry to grant a license to Landsvirkjun to build the Karahnjukar Dam, a project that relied on foreign loans and cost over 3 billion dollars.[34] This was followed by the District Court of Reykjavik’s dismissal of a lawsuit that had been put forth by the INCA, not on grounds that there was no legal case, but because the case had not been “correctly formulated.” The INCA corrected, and put forth the lawsuit again, but it was sent to the High Court only to be dismissed.[35]

Iceland then received an exemption from the Kyoto Protocol pollution limits which allowed them to increase their pollution by ten percent from 1990 levels in light of the aluminum smelter project, allowing them to emit 1.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year until 2012.[36]

In the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, more than 10,000 people marched against the Karahnjukar Dam Project in May 2004, which is equivalent to around ten-million people in the United States.[37] Following the emergence of widespread opposition in Iceland, Alcoa released a “Sustainability Initiative” as an attempt to quiet the environmental opposition. The “Sustainability Initiative,” however, mainly outlined future projects that Alcoa wished to pursue, the economic benefits which were possible, and why Alcoa was an environmentally friendly company in light of the fact that they ran aluminum factories on geothermal energy and not coal, claiming that 1.8 metric tons of carbon dioxide is released for every metric ton of aluminum produced compared to 13 metric tons a coal operated smelter would produce. [38]

Sustainable development is defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”[39] According to this definition, it is obvious that the Karahjukar Dam project is not a form of sustainable development. It is also obvious that while the Karahjukar Dam project may meet the needs of the present (that is, if we define “needs” in terms of economic gain), it causes irreversible environmental damage for future generations. Currently, Iceland is considered one of the countries that have been the hardest hit by the economic crisis that has swept the world beginning in the fall of 2008. Many Icelandic politicians are now focusing their blame for the rapid decline in the Kroner’s value to the rapid economic boom that followed the industrialization of Iceland’s wilderness. It is apparent that, whether you define gain in terms of sustainable development or capital gain, since entering Iceland, Alcoa has produced neither.

According to the Treadmill of Production, it is the prospect of economic gain that drives citizens, corporations and governments to turn to unsustainable means, which in turn has a paradoxical affect in that it will eventually not be good for anyone involved, aside from the few that gain the quickest capital. In Iceland, however, it has been outlined since the beginning of negotiations with Alcoa that the economic benefits of such projects as the Karahnjukar Dam Project were unknown. This is due to the fact that the capital gain for Iceland is reliant both on the market price of aluminum (which is at present very low) and in turn how much demand there is for the aluminum. While it is debatable how many jobs Alcoa has actually provided for Icelanders, in order to profit, Iceland has to be selling Alcoa the power to produce aluminum, which in turn is reliant on global aluminum demand.[40]

Glitnir, which was one of the largest banks in Iceland before it was nationalized—along with three other banks—in 2008 following the economic crisis, released the following statement regarding the Karahnjukar Dam Project in 2006: “Economic benefits are probably out-weighed by the developments’ indirect impact on demand, inflation, interest rates and the ISK exchange rate.”[41] More recently, the former Prime Minister of Iceland, Geir H. Haarde, said in a television interview for a popular evening discussion show entitled Kastljosid, “one of the main reasons for the fall of the Krona was execution of heavy industry projects.” This is also consistent with a statement released by the Iceland Nature Conservation Association in which they say that the Karhnjukar plant is not “financially viable when value based on market rates.” [42]

Regarding the jobs that Alcoa promised Icelanders: there are as yet no obtainable statistical data that offers the exact number of employment offered or lost because of the Karahnjukar Dam project. However, both the National Daily Newspaper of Iceland, Morgunbladid, and the Saving Iceland website have reported that while Alcoa increases jobs, they displace existing local industries, which could account for the increase in people moving to Southern Iceland from the Eastern part where the Karahnjukar Dam project is based. In response to the lack of interest from Icelanders to work at the actual aluminum smelters or work building the Karahnjukar Dam, Alcoa hired a foreign contracting agency, Impregilo, to recruit foreign workers, which brought a huge influx of immigrants into Iceland. [43]

The environmental impact of the Karahnjukar Dam is enormous; the power plant itself is the largest industrial development in Iceland’s history. The Iceland Nature Conservation has reported that the prospective aluminum smelter projects will devastate 3 percent of Iceland’s landmass, and will lay ruin or severely affect sixty waterfalls. This is not including the secondary impact of windblown dust, long-term erosion, downstream or costal slit and soil deposits, alterations in groundwater characteristics in peripheral areas with resulting changes in vegetation and wildlife habitats.[44]

The direct impact area is 1,000 sq. km. and includes the area of two of three major glacial river systems that flow north from Vatnajokull, the largest glacier in Europe. It is this area, including catchments north of it, that comprises one of the largest remaining wilderness areas of Europe. Some of the animals whose habitats will be severely affected include geese, reindeer, harbor seals, and rare invertebrate species. Furthermore, there have been widespread reports that the pollution emanating from the smelters causes damage to livestock (from the fluorine pollution) and crops of neighboring farms. The possible side-effects of the electromagnetic fields emanating from the projects’ 31 miles of high-tension power lines are unknown. The smelters also release potentially acid-rain producing sulfur dioxide.

II. Iceland and the EU ETS

The European Union (EU) defines Iceland as “a country with deep democratic roots and a tradition of good governance, high social and environmental standards and historically close ties with many European countries.”[45] Iceland has been involved with the EU since its conception. In 1970, Iceland became a member of The European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and joined the bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the EEC in 1972. Though not part of the European Union, Iceland has already integrated many of the EU laws to fit national laws following the establishment of the European Economic Area (EEA) in 1994. The agreement was between member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Community, which would later become the European Union.[46] In short, the EEA agreement allows Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to participate in the EU’s single market without any obligation of becoming an EU member. In exchange, the countries must adopt all EU legislation pertaining to the single market, except that which relates to agriculture and fisheries.  The agreement grants citizens of membership countries the right to travel and work freely throughout other membership countries.

Yet, despite a large portion of EU laws that have been applied, and Iceland’s involvement with numerous EU agencies and programs encompassing the fields of enterprise, environment, education and research, the Icelandic government is still unable to vote on EU legal resolutions (which in turn effect those EU laws they have adopted) because they are not officially a member of the EU. In addition, two-thirds of Iceland’s foreign trade is with EU Member States.

Despite Iceland’s 2008 financial crisis, subsequent nationalization of the banking system, and devaluation of the national currency, the European Union maintains that Iceland’s “economic base remains strong and the prospect of EU membership is expected to have a stabilizing effect on the Icelandic economy.” [47]

EU appears eager to receive Iceland as a member, further exemplified by the European Commission’s amendment to the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance so as to include Iceland as a beneficiary, a move meant to assist Iceland financially to ensure the country can be fully prepared to “take on the obligations of membership of the European Union by the time of accession.” [48]

Iceland applied for membership to the EU in July 2009, negotiations started in July 2010 and the EU has opened accession talks.  On June 17, 2010, the European Council announced it was ready to open accession negotiations with Iceland. On July 26, 2010, the EU Negotiating Framework was adopted, which “outlines principles, substance and procedures guiding the negotiations with Iceland, thus paving the way for upcoming accession talks between Iceland and the EU.” The first inter-governmental conference on the accession of Iceland to the EU was then held in Brussels on July 27, symbolizing that accession talks had officially begun.[49]

Currently, progress has halted because the EU has demanded that Iceland resolve the continued dispute with the UK and the Netherlands over the money lost when the online Icesave bank collapsed in 2008.[50] Icelanders rejected a payment plan in a referendum held in March 2010. The UK and Dutch governments want Iceland to reimburse $5 billion that they paid as compensation to Icesave investors.[51] The EU also expects Iceland to implement more regulations on the financial system in order to qualify for membership. [52]

In 2005, the EU launched a new program, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are the only member states who are not part of the European Union, but are members of the EEA. [53] A study in 2008 for the Pew Center for Global Climate Change by A. Denny Ellerman and Paul L. Joskow of MIT concludes that, given the start-up challenges, “the [EU ETS] system has performed surprisingly well.”[54]

The EU ETS is the most far-reaching example of greenhouse gas emissions trading in the world. The system encompasses the emissions from power plants and six major industrial sectors, including oil, iron and steel, cement, aluminum, and airline pollution. Phase I of the EU ETS was coined the “learning phase” and ran from 2005 through 2007. The second phase coincides with the compliance period of the Kyoto Protocol from 2008-2012. The third phase is planned to run from 2013 through 2020.

Joining the EU will ensure vital legal restrictions on excessive external exploitation of geothermal extraction[55] through the full implementation of the EU Environmental Trading Scheme (ETS).[56] Fully implementing the EU ETS would also give Iceland further incentive to ease their dependency on renewing business contracts with Alcoa, and the planned expansion of aluminum smelters throughout Iceland[57], which has a devastating impact on local farming communities. However, Iceland will not join the EU unless Icelanders support it in a referendum, which may be held in late 2011 or early 2012. According to three polls conducted by Gallup between May and September 2010, between 54 and 69 percent of those asked oppose Iceland joining the EU.[58]

1. Wetlands Restoration

Two-thirds of Iceland is almost, or completely, devoid of vegetation. Glaciers cover some 11 percent of the country, and rivers and lakes another 2.2 percent. Approximately 27 percent of the land area has vegetation, about one-third of which is wetland.[59] According to guidelines set forth by the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the purpose of green house gas, land use, land-use change and forestry (GHG LULUCF) accounting, wetlands “include land that is covered or saturated by water for all or part of the year (e.g. peatland) and that does not fall into the forest land, cropland, grassland or settlements.”[60] The biggest source of carbon on land is found in wetlands. Through draining and degradation, wetlands become a net source of greenhouse gas emissions. The Karanhnjukur dam project, as well as numerous other current, and proposed, projects throughout Iceland—such as in Eyarfjordur, Husavik and Myvatnsveit—are also examples of the continued need to increase political and public support for the restoration of wetlands.

Lack of vegetation, coupled with the densely populated coast (the center of Iceland is uninhabitable), lead to the draining of much of Iceland’s wetlands in the 20^th Century.  Studies from Iceland’s University of Agriculture show that there are considerable C02 emission from these drained areas, but that by blocking draining ditches and raising water levels, a large amount of the biodiversity can be restored, and the C02 emissions significantly reduced, if not stopped entirely.[61]

The data collected shows that the emissions reduction potential through wetland restoration in Iceland is equitable to half the country’s overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In other words, the restoration would restore almost half of the annual combined emissions from fossil fuel (such as from cars) and industrial process (such as an Alcoa smelter).[62] The report concludes, “Clearly, this means that there is high technical mitigation potential in wetland restoration in Iceland, which could be utilized by providing incentives,” while noting that, “It is economically, politically and technically impossible to restore all disturbed wetlands to their former state,” as much of the land has been converted to agricultural space.[63] A national program is most likely to work, and meet the least amount of opposition, if it focuses only on land that has been abandoned or neglected.

While the main intent for implementing wetland restoration at a national level is environmental, the main incentive is economic. The first phase of such a program, however, will cost money; it requires a focus on establishing, and improving upon, land inventory, in addition to deciding upon a methodology of evaluations.

A proposal drafted by the Icelandic Ministry for the Environment, and presented at the 2008 United Nations Convention on Climate Change, outlines the global importance of executing wetland restoration. The report states: “The technical mitigation potential for drained and damaged wetlands, including peatlands, would appear to be sizable on a global scale, perhaps equivalent of up to 10% of global emissions, counting emissions from wooded peatlands,” but admits that due to geographic and population limitations, most countries have lower mitigation potential than Iceland. The report also states that Iceland suffers from a “small-economy syndrome,” which means that single projects, such as the Karanjukar dam, can have a big effect on emissions. Accordingly, it is estimated that approximately 10% of Iceland’s national greenhouse gas emissions come from the heavy industry projects, such as the Karahnjukar dam and Reykjanesbaer aluminum smelter.[64]

To illustrate the pragmatism of utilizing wetland restoration as a means of meeting international GHG agreements, the report draws on similar guidelines presented under Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol. These guidelines state that Annex I countries must include the C02 effects of management of existing forests (as opposed to wetlands) in their national greenhouse gas inventories. The offsets of the forest emissions can in turn be used as carbon credits which fulfill their terms of the Kyoto commitments. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations estimates that forest and wetland restoration can produce C02 credits worth hundreds of millions of euros.[65] The system used by the Kyoto Protocol for member countries to meet their carbon commitments is analogous to how European Union member states can approach the implementation of wetland restoration as a means of meeting annual EU ETS emissions requirements.

In another proposal presented by representative from Iceland’s Ministry of the Environment, a Kyoto Protocol Workshop in Bonn on March 27, 2009 concludes that it is a realistic goal to aim for a 50-70 percent emissions cut by 2050 through the implementation of wetland restoration. The report draws on conclusions by an unnamed “committee of experts” who assess Iceland’s mitigation potential.[66]

All studies put forth by Iceland’s Ministry of the Environment conclude that increased emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane caused by degradation, can be in the least halted, at the most reversed, through wetland restoration.

(a)    wetlands restoration initiatives are lacking at present.[67]

Recommendation for Iceland to restore drained and degraded wetlands as means of reducing carbon, nitrous oxide and methane from the atmosphere. Also a proposal of an additional way for countries to meet their EU ETS mitigation commitments.

1. Fishing Stock Restoration

Aside from heavy industry executed by means of utilizing geothermal energy, fisheries[68] are the next largest driver of the Icelandic economy. Fisheries account for 15 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 75 percent of the nation’s goods exports. Agriculture represents only 3 per cent of GDP, but produces sufficient meat and dairy products to satisfy domestic demand. [69]

(a)  Challenges – public opposition. In order to restore fishing stocks, there must be strict government regulation.  But citizens and politicians are also wary of outside intervention in national fishing matters, and fears are often publicly expressed that joining the EU will cause outside intervention in national quota laws[70]. Public distrust is exemplified by a long history of fishing “wars” with the United Kingdom, most famously the Cod-wars[71]. Currently, Iceland is engaged in a dispute with Scotland and the Faeroes over mackerel.[72]

(b)  Legal history[73]

(c)  Recommendation to restore fishing stocks through stricter regulation, while simultaneously ensuring that national laws are in place that protects Iceland’s fishing interests before the country joins the EU.

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[11] “Many Icelanders Keen on Adopting Euro, Mixed on EU,” Gallup,” http://www.gallup.com/poll/118381/icelanders-keen-adopting-euro-mixed.aspx (accessed October 5, 2010).

[12] Wit, Ron, Bart Boon, André van Velzen, Martin Cames, Odette Deuber, and

David Lee, “Giving Wings to Emissions Trading: Inclusion of Aviation Under the European Emission Trading System, Design and Impacts,” European Commission, May 2010,

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/pdf/aviation_et_study.pdf (accessed October 8, 2010).

[13] Sigurjónsson, Júlís, “Forsetar Raeddu Orkumalin,” Morgunbladid,” http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2010/09/19/forsetar_raeddu_orkumalin/ (accessed September 19, 2010).

[14] “Establishing a Scheme for Greenhouse Gas Emission Allowance Trading Within the Community and Amending Council Directive 96/61/EC,” Journal of the European Union, http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:275:0032:0032:EN:PDF (accessed September 14, 2010).

[15] Del Giudice, Marguerite, “Power Struggle,” National Geographic Magazine, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/iceland/del-giudice-text (accessed September 22, 2010).

[16] Brown, Ian T., “Many Icelanders Keen on Adopting Euro, Mixed on EU,” Gallup, http://www.gallup.com/poll/118381/icelanders-keen-adopting-euro-mixed.aspx (accessed October 5, 2010).

[16] As proposed, but never implemented, by Icelandic parliament for AWG-KP 6, part I meeting in Acura 2008.

[17] Van Treek, Sophia, “Sophia and the EU,” The Reykjavik Grapevine, http://www.grapevine.is/Home/ReadArticle/Sophia-And-The-EU- (accessed October 18, 2010).

[18] “Legislation,” Ministry for the Environment, Iceland, http://eng.umhverfisraduneyti.is/legislation/ (accessed October 5, 2010).

[19] United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, “Iceland – Economic Analysis of Climate Change Mitigation Potential,” KP Workshop, Bonn, 27 March 2009, http://unfccc.int/files/kyoto_protocol/application/pdf/1_8_iceland.pdf (accessed October 18, 2010).

[20] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “FAO Country Profiles, Iceland,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index.asp?lang=en&iso3=ISL&subj=4 (accessed October 18, 2010).

[21] McFarlane, Andrew, “Why Is Britain Braced for a Mackerel War?” BBC World News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11062674 (accessed August 25, 2010); BBC News, “Faroes and Iceland urged to back down over mackerel,” BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11199799 (accessed September 10, 2010); BBC News, “Scottish fishermen are to boycott a meeting in the Faroe Islands over the host country’s decision to unilaterally increase mackerel quotas,” BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11199799 (accessed September 10, 2010).

[22] The Cod wars, or Þorskastríðin, was a series of territorial confrontations in the 1950s and 1970s regarding fishing rights in the Atlantic between the United Kingdom and Iceland. In 1976 Britian deployed naval vessels within the disputed waters and Iceland treatened to close the major NATO base in Keflavik—the dispute ended shortly thereafter.

BBC News, “1975: Attack on British vessels heightens Cod War,” BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/newsid_2546000/2546045.stm (accessed September 22, 2010).

[23] Schneider, Keith, “Iceland Plans to Withdraw from International Whaling Agreement,” Europolitics, Secion 1; Page 3; Column 1, December 28, 1991; Eckstein, Anne, “EU/Iceland: Fisheries a Hot Issue in Membership Talks,” Europolitics, section No. 4018, July 13, 2010; Eckstein, Anne, “Fisheries: Mackerel: Reykjaviki Rejects EU Proposals,” Europolitics, section No. 4076, November 4, 2010.

[24] Framework Convention on Climate Change, Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties Under the Kyoto Protocol, Bonn 1-11 June, 2010. “Compilation of Pledges for Emissions Reductions and Related Assumptions Provided by Parties to Date and the Associated Emission Reductions.” http://www. unfccc.int/resource/docs/2010/awg12/eng/inf01.pdf (accessed November 17, 2010).

[25] Gross, Daniel, “Iceland’s Green Man; How a Tiny Island Nation Weaned Itself off Fossil Fuels and Took the Lead In Alternative Energy,” The Economist, Environmental & Leadership section, Vol. 151, No. 18, May 5, 2008.

[26] Nature Conservation of Iceland, “Tilaga Natturuverndarsamtaka Islands ad Athugasemdum til Skipulagsstofnunar,” Nature Conservation of Iceland, http://www.natturuverndarsamtok.is/natturuvernd/page.asp?ID=2522 (accessed November 17, 2010).

[27] Alcoa, “Alcoa’s Fjardaal Team; Project Overview and Icelandic Travel Guide,” Alcoa, www.go2go4.com/simply/portfolio/…/ALCOA/pdf/Alcoa_Fjardaal_Team.pdf (September 2003).

[29] Iceland’s Nature Conservation, “Af sumarhúsastóriðju við Úlfljótsvatn,” Iceland’s Nature Conservation, http://www.natturuverndarsamtok.is/natturuvernd/page.asp?ID=2584 (accessed November 24, 2010).

[30] Del Giudice, Marguerite, “Power Struggle,” National Geographic Magazine, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/iceland/del-giudice-text (accessed September 22, 2010).

[31] Iceland Review Online, “Heavy Industry Projects Have Low Returns, Displace Jobs,” Iceland Review, http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=183691 (accessed November 24, 2010).

[32] Iceland’s Nature Conservation, “Chronology of  the Karahjukar Project,” Iceland’s Nature Conservation, http://www.inca.is/articlesiv2.asp?ID=9 (accessed November 24, 2010).

[33] Morgunbladid, “40 lögreglumál vegna stóriðjumótmæla,” Morgunbladid, September 2008, http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2008/09/03/40_logreglumal_vegna_storidjumotmaela (accessed November 17, 2010).

[34] Iceland’s Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, “Index of Laws and Regulations,” http://eng.idnadarraduneyti.is/laws-and-regulations/ (access November 24, 2010).

[35] Iceland’s Nature Conservation, “Chronology of  the Karahjukar Project,” Iceland’s Nature Conservation, http://www.inca.is/articlesiv2.asp?ID=9 (accessed November 24, 2010).

[36] Ministry for the Enviornment, Iceland, “Economic Analysis of Climate Change Mitigation Potential” KP Workshop, Bonn, 27 March 2009, http://www. unfccc.int/files/kyoto_protocol/application/pdf/1_8_iceland.pdf – 2009-03-28 (accessed November 17, 2010).

[37] Jakobsdottir, Steinnun, “Best of Karahnjukar,” The Reykjavik Grapevine,  http://www.grapevine.is/Features/ReadArticle/Best-of-Karahnjukar (accessed November 24, 2010).

[38] Alcoa, “Sustainability Initiative; Measuring Alcoa and Landsvirkjun Performance,” Alcoa, www.alcoa.com/iceland/en/pdf/Iceland_Sustainability_Final_Report.pdf (accessed November 24, 2010).

[39] Quoted by Gould, Kenneth A. and Tammy L. Lewis in Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, England: Oxford University Press, 2008.

[40] Sigurlaugsson, Thorsteinn, “Karahnjukr Dam Project, Estimation of Profitability,” Prepared for the Iceland Nature Conservation, http://www.inca.is/articlesiv2.asp?ID=9 (accessed November 24, 2010).

[41] Magnusson, Arni, “Glitnir; Sustainable Banking,” United Nations website, www.un.org/esa/sustdev/sdissues/energy/op/…/23_magnusson.pdf (accessed November 24, 2010).

[42] Haarde, Geir, “Kastljosid 1. April 2008,” Youtube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV6qZJJFpOI (accessed November 24, 2010).

[43] Morgunbladid, “40 lögreglumál vegna stóriðjumótmæla,” Morgunbladid,

http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2008/09/03/40_logreglumal_vegna_storidjumomaela (Accessed October 28, 2010).

[44] Iceland Nature Conservation, Baraclays and the Karahjukar Dam Project,” Iceland Nature Conservation, www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/barclays_karahnjukar.pdf (accessed November 24, 2010).

[45] European Commission, “EU-Iceland Relations,” European Comission. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/candidate-countries/iceland/relation/index_en.htm (accessed November 2, 2010).

[46] European Union, External Action, “The European Economic Area,” European Union, http://eeas.europa.eu/eea/ (accessed November 17, 2010).

[47] European Commission, “EU-Iceland Relations,” European Comission. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/candidate-countries/iceland/relation/index_en.htm (accessed November 2, 2010).

[48] European Commission, “EU-Iceland Relations,” European Comission. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/candidate-countries/iceland/relation/index_en.htm (accessed November 2, 2010).

[49] European Commission, “EU-Iceland Relations,” European Comission. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/candidate-countries/iceland/relation/index_en.htm (accessed November 2, 2010).

[50] “Grimsson Says Iceland Seeks Solution in Depositor Spat: Video,” Washington Post Online, accessed September 24, 2010 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/09/14/VI2010091407299.html

[51] “Iceland panel wants charges over 2008 bank collapse,” Reuters, Accessed September 12, 2010, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68A1JP20100911

[52] “EU Enlargement: The Next Eight,” BBC World News, accessed September 14, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11283616

[53] European Commission, “Guidance on Interpretation of Annex I of the EU ETS Directive (excl. aviation activities),” http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/ets/docs/100318_guidance_interpr_annex_i_final.pdf (accessed December 1, 2010).

[54] Ellerman, Denny and Paul L. Joskow, “The European Union’s Emissions Trading System in Perspective

[55] “Forsetar Raeddu Orkumalin,” Morgunbladid,” accessed September 19, 2010, http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2010/09/19/forsetar_raeddu_orkumalin/

[56] “Establishing a Scheme for Greenhouse Gas Emission Allowance Trading Within the Community and Amending Council Directive 96/61/EC,” Official Journal of the European Union, accessed September 14, 2010, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:275:0032:0032:EN:PDF

[57] “Power Struggle,” The National Geographic Magazine.,” accessed September 22, 2010, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/iceland/del-giudice-text.

[58] “Many Icelanders Keen on Adopting Euro, Mixed on EU,” Gallup,” accessed October 5, 2010,  http://www.gallup.com/poll/118381/icelanders-keen-adopting-euro-mixed.aspx

[59] Framework Convention on Climate Change, “Executive Summary of the National Communication of Iceland, “submitted under Articles 4 and 12 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, May 15, 1996 unfccc.int/cop5/resource/docs/nc/ice01.pdf (accessed November 17, 2010).

[60] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories,” www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/index.html (accessed November 24, 2010).

[61] Óskarsson, Hlynur and Skarphéðinn Halldórsson, “Áhrif framræslu á útskolun kolefnis úr mýrarjarðvegi,” http://www.landbunadur.is/landbunadur/wgsamvef.nsf/8bbba2777ac88c4000256a89000a2ddb/452123f0cb2a457600257102004864aa?OpenDocument  (accessed December 2, 2010), Reykjavik: BÍ, LbhÍ, L.r., S.r., 2006

[62] The calculations in the report by Óskarsson and Halldórsson were made using Tier-1 methods from IPCC 2006 Guidelines. The emissions are 1,788,106 tons of CO2 eq, (1,468,106 tons from CO2 and 320,106 tons from N2O).

[63]http://www.landbunadur.is/landbunadur/wgsamvef.nsf/8bbba2777ac88c4000256a89000a2ddb/452123f0cb2a457600257102004864aa?OpenDocument  (accessed December 2, 2010), Reykjavik: BÍ, LbhÍ, L.r., S.r., 2006

[64] Ministry of the Environments, Iceland, “Wetland Restoration and Management,” for AWG–KP 6, part I meeting in Accra, August 2008, unfccc.int/files/kyoto_protocol/application/pdf/iceland.pdf (accessed November 17, 2010).

[65] The principles guiding the activity would be those listed in Decision 16/CMP.1 as outlined by Kägi , W. and H. Schmidtke, “Who Gets the Money? What Do Forest Owners in Developed Countries Expect from the Kyoto Protocol?” Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations,   http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0413e/a0413E09.htm (accessed November 17, 2010).

[66] Ministry for the Enviornment, Iceland, “Economic Analysis of Climate Change Mitigation Potential” KP Workshop, Bonn, 27 March 2009, http://www. unfccc.int/files/kyoto_protocol/application/pdf/1_8_iceland.pdf – 2009-03-28 (accessed November 17, 2010).

[67] 1. “Third Informal Dialogue on LULUCF,” Landbunadur.is, accessed September 14, 2010, http://landbunadur.is/landbunadur/wgrala.nsf/key2/hhjn7etf6x.html

2. “Wetland Restoration; A Proposal for an Amendmentto Decision 16/CMP.1 on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry adopeted by Decision 11/CP.7, “Ministry for the Environment,” www.coford.ie/iopen24/pub/workshop-Iceland.pdf

3. “Informal Data Submission on LULUCF to the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Fuerther Commitments for Annex I Parties Under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP),” United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, accessed September 14, 2010, http://unfccc.int/files/kyoto_protocol/…/awgkplulucficeland081209.pdf

[68] I use the term ‘fisheries’ to mean both the catching of fish and the processing of fish.

[69] unfccc.int/cop5/resource/docs/nc/ice01.pdf

[70] “Why Is Britian Braced for a Mackerel War?” BBC World News, accessed August 25, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11062674

[71] The Cod wars, or Þorskastríðin, was a series of territorial confrontations in the 1950s and 1970s regarding fishing rights in the Atlantic between the United Kingdom and Iceland. In 1976 Britian deployed naval vessels within the disputed waters and Iceland treatened to close the major NATO base in Keflavik—the dispute ended shortly thereafter. “1975: Attack on British vessels heightens Cod War,” BBC News, accessed September 22, 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/newsid_2546000/2546045.stm

[72] 1. “European Parliament Could Take Action In Mackerel Fish Row,” BBC News, accessed August 30, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11126330

2. “Faroes and Iceland urged to back down over mackerel,” BBC News, accessed September 10, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11199799

3. “Scottish fishermen are to boycott a meeting in the Faroe Islands over the host country’s decision to unilaterally increase mackerel quotas,” BBC News, accessed September 10, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11199799

[73] “Lagasafn,” Althingi.is, accessed October 4, 2010, http://www.althingi.is/vefur/lagasafn.html

Melissa Gutierrez October 3, 2010

Draft of Proposal of Focused Topic

The American welfare system is inefficient and not structured well. In particular, the most recent and drastic welfare reform, the 1996 PROWRA Act, and its provision which established the new rules and guidelines for federal welfare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, TANF, are failing recipients and the country. TANF fails us by denying welfare recipients the authentic opportunity to become self-sufficient. They are denied the opportunity to become truly self-sufficient in two ways. First, the recipients are denied access to higher education or the opportunity to attend a higher educational institution. Second, the recipients are repeatedly and explicitly encouraged to become married by the government and the welfare system. Upon the examination of the text of PROWRA, specifically the language of TANF, it is explicit that the government, particularly congress and the state and local government, are denying recipients a genuine opportunity to obtain self-sufficiency, by promoting marriage as well as by denying the recipients the ability and access, the right, to pursue a higher education, which would allow the recipients the skills and training necessary to be competitive in the market place, hence economically independent. The text of TANF explicitly states that marriage and work are the ways out of poverty. Many individual states and localities choose policies that promote “work first” and ultimately believe that any job, low-wage, temporary, insecure, is a good job.

Upon the examination of the text of PROWRA, specifically the language of TANF, it is explicit that the government, particularly congress and the state and local government, are denying recipients a genuine opportunity to obtain self-sufficiency, by denying the recipients the ability and access, the right, to pursue a higher education, which would allow the recipients the skills and training necessary to be competitive in the market place, hence economically independent. Upon examining the policy history of the American welfare system, the first blatant issue is that welfare is a product of federalism, and TANF in particular grants the states more power over the structure of the system. This allows states to use eligibility criteria and sanctions in order to force women, through the enactment of TANF, into a low wage workforce and/or marriage. An analysis of the policy history of welfare illustrates the government’s intrusion into the private lives and moral choices of recipients and their legal punishments through eligibility criteria and sanction criteria as well as through rules and regulations. The government and interests groups and businesses worked together and through a conservative movement and republican control of the government, manipulated public opinion of the welfare system by the demonization of recipients by portraying them as “welfare queens” and their “illegitimate children.”

The reason that many women remain in poverty, after all, is because they lack the skills, training, and resources to obtain a good job, any job in some cases, and some don’t even have the ability to travel to appointments and training due to transportation access as well as safe and secure child care access. It is essential to understand that the right to welfare, as Mink notes, is an essential component of reproductive freedom and for vocational choice for single mother recipients. A right to obtain higher education if one can obtain it through financial aid is denied by the states based on the criteria of what constitutes an “educational training” (if it is even allowed in the 35 hour a week work requirement) is also denied is many very poor areas. Access to higher education would mean the right to have the hours one spends in a four year institution counted as part of the recipients 35 hour a week work requirement. Many states and localities determine individually for their locality the educational programs that are eligible to be counted as part of the 35 hour a week work requirement for recipients. Many of these localities do not include four year colleges as an eligible work activity, and so through the use of sanctions for noncompliance, welfare agencies deny recipients the opportunity to go to school by also making these hours ineligible for the child care that is subsidized during the hours of the work activity to be used toward the classes. Furthermore, the right to welfare is essential in protecting recipients from the strict and moral based eligibility and sanction criteria of the state and federal governments. Sanctions punish single motherhood for the poor and force single mothers into a low wage workforce and denying them access to higher education. My goal is to illustrate the inequality of recipients citizenship status compared to the citizenship status of non-recipients by illustrating the governments denial of some of the fundamental rights of American citizens have by their enactment of TANF.

The text of TANF explicitly states that marriage and work are the ways out of poverty. Many individual states and localities choose policies that promote “work first” and ultimately believe that any job, low-wage, temporary, insecure, is a good job. Despite evidence that women who obtain a higher education have an almost 100% rate of remaining off of public assistance, the numbers of recipients in college has dropped, as noted by authors Ellen Reese and Felicia Kornbluh. This is due to the fact that local welfare agencies promote work as opposed to long term economic security and authentic self-sufficiency. This is due in part to pressure from the federal government, since TANF is partly funded by a federal block grant, and the federal government provides financial bonuses to states that lower recipient’s birth rates and abortion rates simultaneously by promoting abstinence and marriage. Furthermore, the federal government ranted the states the most freedom they’ve had with welfare since the New Deal through the enactment of TANF, allowing states to deny access to education, services, and healthcare. Additionally, the states via the power granted to them by the federal government are allowed to deny the rights of citizens to recipients, such as reproductive freedom and vocational freedom, this means that TANF explicitly violates equal protection of the law. This violation is a denial of equal opportunity, of equal citizenship, by the coercion of recipients to get married and become financially dependent on their husbands, and/or to become workers who are trapped into a low wage work force due to the denial of a higher education and/or adequate training that would have enhanced the recipients opportunity of self-sufficiency.

The relevance of these reasons is to illustrate the flaws of the welfare system that affect our economy and the future of our country. The text of TANF is federal law, it dictates the lives of the recipients and denied rights once held by recipients, rights that were fought for and gained through the welfare rights movements of the 1960’s. Through the enactment of TANF, the federal entitlement to welfare that was created by FDR was abolished as well. Without an adequate education, recipients will cycle on and off of welfare and remain in poverty, a condition that will affect all American taxpayers and the quality of our society. Furthermore, by treating recipients as legal and social sub-citizens, the government is implicitly legalizing racial and class-based hierarchies as well as the legal perpetuation of male dominance.

The kind of evidence that I will use to support these reasons are books, articles, statistical data, interviews, and research of the text of the TANF act as well as research of the three states, I am in the process of doing more research to determine which states will best illustrate my argument. I will use books to support my argument of unequal citizenship of the recipients through the enactment of TANF. Gwendolyn Mink discusses in great depth the argument that TANF creates sub-citizenship through its coercion of recipients and denial of citizenship based rights such as reproductive and vocational freedom, all though she mainly advocates a poor woman’s right to be a homemaker, and advocates economic recognition of caretaking. I rely on her analysis of recipient citizenship status as a denial of equal citizenship as support for my argument.

Ronald Dworkin discusses the concept of “external preferences” in his piece On Liberty. “External preferences” is the legal denial of equal citizenship through legislated morally based preferences that impose one version of the good life on all citizens, and does not respect the differing conceptions of the good life as equal. By denying recipients the access to services and an education based on their private moral choices to be single mothers, through the enactment of TANF, the government is imposing conservative moral preferences of individuals. Felicia Kornbluh’s The Battle for Welfare Rights will be analyzed to illustrate the necessity of social movements in order to obtain or maintain rights. Kornbluh analyzes many states, but pays particular attention to New York, and discusses policies and grassroots movements such as NRWO, which formed to fight for a right to welfare. She goes into detail discussing strategies, successes, failures, and organizational tactics for improving access to welfare benefits as well as the system itself. Ellen Reese’s Backlash Against Welfare Mothers, Past and Present, will be analyzed to support my argument as well. I would like to use my argument to build off of some of Reese’s main claims. Reese discusses in great detail the conservative movement to change welfare, the barriers that TANF creates to limit or deny access to higher education, and a policy analysis of welfare as well as an analysis of the welfare rights movement. Reese also analyses the movements and backlashes of government in response to the gain of welfare rights. In the end, Reese calls for a new new deal, for the working poor.

I will analyze welfare policy history, the history of the welfare rights movement as well as conservative “backlash” to both of these events through books, articles, and congressional and public debates on welfare. I will use articles to cite opinions and statistics to illustrate the number Through analyzing the text of TANF, as well as through an analysis of federal and three individual states eligibility and sanction criteria, as well as an analysis of the statistics of people sanctioned off of welfare, full and partial sanctions, and rates of return to welfare/people staying in poverty of recipients who went to school vs. recipients who did not go to school.

My analysis will focus primarily on the past fifty years, yet I will also go back to FDR and the New Deal to emphasize certain aspects of my argument, such as the racist nature of the welfare system. I will also use FDR’s New Deal to illustrate the establishment of an entitlement for poor people to public assistance, and I will discuss how TANF abolished this 60 yearlong entitlement to welfare and replaced it with workfare, a wage supplement, as opposed to an income maintenance program as welfare has been. But I will mainly focus on the past 50 years, beginning at the welfare rights movement and I will discover and analyze the time period in which access to higher education became an issue. Once I discover the time period, I will analyze the struggle to access higher education in depth to determine when or if there is federal access for recipients and which states out of my three deny/restrict access to higher education.

In my field, there is a lot of legal analysis, especially in pre law, such as analyzing Court cases, Congressional hearings and debates, Law review articles and scholarly articles, Presidential addresses and policy analysis. In political science we also analyze these areas, but we also build theories, either extending a theory that is already in the field or we introduce a new theory, usually we build off of other people’s research, like taking it to the next step or bringing it up to date or applying theories to current issues.

Mink, Gwendolyn: Welfare’s End Cornell University Press; Ithaca, 1998.

This denial of an opportunity for recipients to become self-sufficient members of society is problematic for many reasons. The most important being the fact that TANF contradicts its own mission statement. TANF states that is was created to assist families in obtaining self-sufficiency, this is in theory. In practice, through the grant of state power, eligibility criteria, sanction criteria, recipients loose the rights they had as citizens before entering the welfare system. When dealing with citizenship, I will be addressing the type that is based on the theory of the “right to have rights.” Meaning, the right that welfare recipients have as citizens to still enjoy the full rights of citizenship they enjoyed before entering the welfare system. In other words, meaning that recipients won’t have to give up their full citizenship and exchange it for sub-citizenship, a denial, loss, or restriction of their rights, upon entering the welfare system. The text of TANF is federal law, it dictates the lives of the recipients and denied rights once held by recipients, rights that were fought for and gained through the welfare rights movements of the 1960’s. Through the enactment of TANF, the federal entitlement to welfare that was created by FDR was abolished as well. Additionally, the states via the power granted to them by the federal government are allowed to deny the rights of citizens to recipients, such as reproductive freedom and vocational freedom, this means that TANF explicitly violates equal protection of the law. This violation is a denial of equal opportunity, of equal citizenship, by the coercion of recipients to get married and become financially dependent on their husbands, and/or to become workers who are trapped into a low wage work force due to the denial of a higher education and/or adequate training that would have enhanced the recipients opportunity of self-sufficiency. The coercion of marriage and work is explicitly done to recipients in America; non-recipients do not get economically punished for choosing not to live society’s dominant ideal of the nuclear family structure. Recipients are denied equality through their treatment by the government versus non-recipients treatment by the government, meaning the loss of some of the recipient’s rights just by becoming recipients, they enter into sub-citizenship. Recipients are also denied equality amongst each other, through location of the recipient. There exists equality between states; the rules in one state could not apply in the next. Family cap is an example of this, in some states, recipients are denied aid for additional children they bare while receiving assistance. In New York however, there is no family cap provision. There can even be differences within a given state, for example, the meager benefits one receives in NYC are nothing compared to the benefits a recipient in Westchester county receives.

To exercise some of our most fundamental rights, we need to be assured that we have access to other rights. The reason that many women remain in poverty, after all, is because they lack the skills, training, and resources to obtain a good job, or any job in some cases. This is an example of having the right to equal opportunity of citizenship. A right to obtain higher education if one can obtain it through financial aid is denied by the states based on the criteria of what constitutes an “educational training” (if it is even allowed in the 35 hour a week work requirement) is also denied is many very poor areas. In NYC for example, while non-recipients who are poor and can get Pell and TAP are allowed to go to school, recipients who get Federal Pell and state TAP are told that they cannot go to school, because welfare doesn’t recognize their right to equality. Some recipients don’t even have the ability to travel to appointments and training due to transportation access as well as safe and secure child care access. They need the right to safe and secure childcare and the right to adequate transportation if none is available in order to even comply let alone exercise true vocational freedom. My goal is to illustrate the inequality of recipient’s citizenship status compared to the citizenship status of non-recipients by illustrating the government’s denial of some of the fundamental rights that American citizens have by their enactment of TANF. Furthermore, by treating recipients as legal and social sub-citizens, the government is implicitly legalizing racial and class-based hierarchies as well as the legal perpetuation of male dominance. Gwendolyn Mink discusses in great depth the argument that TANF creates sub-citizenship through its coercion of recipients and denial of citizenship based rights such as reproductive and vocational freedom, all though she mainly advocates a poor woman’s right to be a homemaker, and advocates economic recognition of caretaking. I rely on her analysis of recipient citizenship status as a denial of equal citizenship as support for my argument. Also, Ronald Dworkin discusses the concept of “external preferences” in his piece On Liberty. “External preferences” is the legal denial of equal citizenship through legislated morally based preferences that impose one version of the good life on all citizens, and does not respect the differing conceptions of the good life as equal. By denying recipients the access to services and an education based on their private moral choices to be single mothers, through the enactment of TANF, the government is imposing conservative moral preferences of individuals. The government, interests groups and businesses worked together and through a conservative movement and republican control of the government, to manipulate public opinion of the welfare system by the demonization of recipients through the portrayal of them as “welfare queens” and their “illegitimate children.” This is an example of an external preference, that preference of the Republicans, being the nuclear family and work first, which manifested into bad policy, that is bad governing and I will illustrate why. Furthermore, this demonization of recipients creates a problem for mobilization due to the stigma created, and it also creates a barrier for people to truly understand the welfare system. Felicia Kornbluh’s The Battle for Welfare Rights will be analyzed to illustrate the necessity of social movements in order to obtain or maintain rights. Kornbluh analyzes many states, but pays particular attention to New York, and discusses policies and grassroots movements such as NRWO, which formed to fight for a right to welfare. She goes into detail discussing strategies, successes, failures, and organizational tactics for improving access to welfare benefits as well as the system itself. Ellen Reese’s Backlash Against Welfare Mothers, Past and Present, will be analyzed to support my argument as well. I would like to use my argument to build off of some of Reese’s main claims. Reese discusses in great detail the conservative movement to change welfare, the barriers that TANF creates to limit or deny access to higher education, and a policy analysis of welfare as well as an analysis of the welfare rights movement. Reese also analyses the movements and backlashes of government in response to the gain of welfare rights. In the end, Reese calls for a new new deal, for the working poor.

Upon examining the policy history of the American welfare system, the first issue is that welfare is a product of federalism, and TANF in particular grants the states more power over the structure of the system. This allows states to use eligibility criteria and sanctions in order to force women, through the enactment of TANF, into a low wage workforce and/or marriage and to attempt to control recipient fertility. Furthermore, TANF is partly funded by a federal block grant, and the federal government provides financial bonuses to states that lower recipient’s birth rates and abortion rates simultaneously by promoting abstinence and marriage. Both the state and the federal government are denying recipients the full rights of cit citizenship hence are treating the recipients as sub-citizens. An analysis of the policy history of welfare illustrates the government’s intrusion into the private lives and moral choices of recipients and their legal punishments through eligibility criteria and sanction criteria as well as through rules and regulations. Furthermore, the federal government granted the states the most freedom they’ve had with welfare since the New Deal through the enactment of TANF, allowing states to deny access to education, services, and healthcare.

Sanctions and eligibility criteria punish single motherhood for the poor and force single mothers into a low wage workforce and denying them access to higher education. In essence, they are denying the option of single motherhood as economically feasible and legally protected. Many states and localities determine individually for their locality the educational programs that are eligible to be counted as part of the 35 hour a week work requirement for recipients. Many of these localities do not include four year colleges as an eligible work activity, and so through the use of sanctions for noncompliance, welfare agencies deny recipients the opportunity to go to school by also making these hours ineligible for the child care that is subsidized during the hours of the work activity to be used toward the classes. Despite evidence that women who obtain a higher education have an almost 100% rate of remaining off of public assistance, the numbers of recipients in college has dropped, as noted by authors Ellen Reese and Felicia Kornbluh. This is due to the fact that local welfare agencies promote work as opposed to long term economic security and authentic self-sufficiency.

It is essential to understand that the right to welfare, as Mink notes, is an essential component of reproductive freedom and for vocational choice for single mother recipients. Through TANF’s work first policy, denial of higher education, promotion of marriage, and family cap policies, these freedoms are denied by the welfare system. Through a right to assistance though, a woman could in theory be independent, until the system is altered, it will be just that, a theoretical right. The right to welfare if administered properly (the system and the right) would allow for the true exercise of reproductive and vocational freedom, but presently, the system denies these rights to recipients. Access to higher education would mean the right to have the hours one spends in a four year institution counted as part of the recipients 35 hour a week work requirement. Furthermore, the right to welfare is essential in protecting recipients from the strict and moral based eligibility and sanction criteria of the state and federal governments. Without an adequate education, recipients will cycle on and off of welfare and remain in poverty, a condition that will affect all American taxpayers and the quality of our society.

To make my argument, I will examine books, articles, statistical data, interviews, and research of the text of the TANF act as well as research of the three states, I am in the process of doing more research to determine which states will best illustrate my argument. I will use books to support my argument of unequal citizenship of the recipients through the enactment of TANF. My analysis will focus primarily on the past fifty years, yet I will also go back to FDR and the New Deal to emphasize certain aspects of my argument, such as the racist nature of the welfare system. I will also use FDR’s New Deal to illustrate the establishment of an entitlement for poor people to public assistance, and I will discuss how TANF abolished this 60 yearlong entitlement to welfare and replaced it with workfare, a wage supplement, as opposed to an income maintenance program as welfare has been. But I will mainly focus on the past 50 years, beginning at the welfare rights movement and I will discover and analyze the time period in which access to higher education became an issue. Once I discover the time period, I will analyze the struggle to access higher education in depth to determine when or if there is federal access for recipients and which states out of my three deny/restrict access to higher education. Through analyzing the text of TANF, as well as through an analysis of federal and three individual states eligibility and sanction criteria, as well as an analysis of the statistics of people sanctioned off of welfare, full and partial sanctions, and rates of return to welfare/people staying in poverty of recipients who went to school vs. recipients who did not go to school. I will analyze welfare policy history, the history of the welfare rights movement as well as conservative “backlash” to both of these events through books, articles, and congressional and public debates on welfare. I will use articles to cite opinions and statistics to illustrate the number.

Dworkin, Ronald: On Liberty

Mink, Gwendolyn: Welfare’s End Cornell University Press; Ithaca, 1998.

Kornbluh, Felicia: The Battle for Welfare Rights University of Pennsylvania Press; Philadelphia, 2007.

Reese, Ellen: Backlash Against Welfare Mothers, Past and Present University of California Press, 2005.

Through TANF, the federal government gives the states the ability to impose moral based eligibility requirements. Restrictions placed on recipients by TANF welfare policy are placed carefully in an implicit manner, because the government must respect the Constitution and cannot force labor of lifestyle (reproductive, relationship) demands on recipients explicitly. So the states and individual counties impose these morality based requirements which coerce recipients into certain personal relationships and jobs. For economic purposes, the effects of the “labor market,” and wages, welfare was turned from an “income maintenance program” to a “wage supplement.” (Somewhere in intro)

Melissa Gutierrez November 3, 2010

The American welfare system has through out history and currently through the enactment of TANF, denied recipients the opportunity to obtain self-sufficiency or independence. One way this is done is through the promotion and focus of work first, which denies recipients the opportunity to pursue a higher education and forces them to take any low-wage position they can in the place of welfare. Therefore the recipient is stuck in a cycle of poverty between wages and welfare, due to their inability to gain marketable skills that would allow them to command a permanent or higher paying position. This unequal opportunity to pursue a higher education between recipients and non-recipients is a example of unequal citizenship status between recipients and non-recipients.

Another way that recipients are denied an opportunity for self-sufficiency is through TANF’s funding of marriage promotion. In the form of financial inscentives such as bonuses for married couples and bonuses for states who keep down out of wedlock child rates, TANF allows the government to promote marriage through federal funding. Marriage promotion fosters economic dependency in recipients on their husbands. Furthermore, it promotes the nuclear family as legitimate and ideal while stigmatizing poor single mother headed families as illegitimate. As political theorist Ronald Dworkin would note, the American government has legislated “morality based external preferences.” This imposition of morals doesn’t respect a citizens “moral independence” to be a single mother. TANF is an example of the government not “being neutral” to “varying conceptions of the good life.” Congress is choosing to divert funds from something Conservatives don’t support, single motherhood, and reallocating it in something they do agree with, an external preference, marriage promotion. This is explicitly saying that the government is economically disenfranchising single motherhood by using TANF funds to promote marriage as opposed to crate services that would help them therefore violating their right to privacy, their liberty to choose marriage or not. The government is violating their right to privacy by implicitly coercing or “quasi-coercing” recipients to become married and denying the choice of single motherhood as legitimate. The government is not respecting individual recipient’s versions off a good family, it is imposing the dominant social norm of a nuclear family as the “foundation of a healthy society” and all things outside of this norm would be subject to economic sanction.

TANF’s missions statements, which lines the walls of welfare offices across the country, is to promote self-sufficiency and independence. There is a difference in theory and practice, TANF states it promotes independence, in theory, they believe they are promoting economic self-sufficiency through the promotion of work first and marriage. I assume that the government defines self-sufficiency as not collecting TANF. Yet, in practice, through the allocation of resources, policies, and federalism (differing state rules and eligibility and sanction criteria), TANF promotes or fosters economic dependence on a spouse or the government.

Mink defines citizenship as “a web of relationships between the individual and the state, relationships that incur both rights and obligations.”¹ Mink discusses obligations as “ethical and legal” and they are “codified through statute and political culture.” Rights, are either “explicitly enumerated in the Constitution or have been definitively located in its penumbras by the Supreme Court.”² As a democratic republic, all citizens have political rights which in theory make us equals. Mink discusses the 1950’s and 60’s as a time for universalizing the civil rights of all citizens through the Court. “Social inequalities” pose as barriers which limit citizens’ ability to exercise our political rights equally. Social rights attempt to create equality, to ensure, for example, “the basic economic security of citizens.” This equality would lead to the equal ability between citizens to exercise their political rights. The paradox lies here, social rights are easier to deny when they lose majority support, yet social rights enable the equal exercise of the political rights of citizenship. The goal is for recipients to not only to have their constitutional rights as citizens recognized under TANF, but to also obtain the social right to welfare, to make it an entitlement again. TANF creates unequal citizenship between welfare recipients as well as between recipients and non-recipients. The restrictions imposed on all welfare recipients (although they vary for married and single women in many ways) degrade the recipient’s rights and deny constitutional protections other citizens enjoy, such as reproductive freedom, a right to privacy, and vocational freedom. Through work first and marriage promotion, recipients are denied opportunities and choices, protected Constitutional rights, that non-recipients exercise.

Additionally, since TANF allows for wide state discretion for TANF eligibility and sanction criteria, it’s implemented differently and the different policies in different states creates unequal citizenship between recipients in different states. An example of this is the family cap, a rule stating that if a recipient has a child while on TANF the new child would be ineligible to receive TANF funds. Yet this rule only applies in some states.

1 – Mink page 9

2 – Mink Page 9-10

Melissa Gutierrez November 10, 2010

TANF: Denying Single Mothers the Opportunity to Obtain Self-Sufficiency

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a flawed system of American welfare provision. My overall thesis is that recipients are denied the opportunity to achieve self-sufficiency in the American welfare system. I focus on how single mothers are denied an opportunity for self-sufficiency through the implementation and structure of TANF. In the book Welfare’s End, Gwendolyn Mink analyzes the history of United States welfare from its origin in states’ “mothers’ pensions” until the federal enactment of the Personal Responsibility Act. I build on Mink’s theory, which supports the right of TANF recipients to have the option to be stay-at-home mothers. Single motherhood, with the exception of widows, has been and still is morally regarded as unacceptable and economically punishable. A conservative coalition has launched attacks on welfare since its beginnings in 1935, and they won with the enactment of TANF. TANF promotes a model of wage-earning in the nuclear family as envisaged by conservative policy as the foundation of a healthy society” (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996). By promoting marriage through the use of TANF funds, as opposed to creating programs that could aid single mothers, Congress and the states have chosen to legally quasi-coerce recipients into positions of dependency. Non-conformity to this patriarchal social norm, being a single mother, results in an economic sanction. If women wanted to be stay at home mothers they had to remain married. If they wanted to be single mothers, they are punished with work outside of the home. I will also cite political and legal theorist Ronald Dworkin’s works Liberalism and A Moral Reading of the Constitution as an analytic framework to illustrate that through the enactment of TANF, the government legislated unconstitutional moral preferences.

Melissa Gutierrez October 20, 2010

Annotated Bibliography

1. Mink, Gwendolyn: Welfare’s End Cornell University Press; Ithaca, 1998.

In the book Welfare’s End, Gwendolyn Mink analyzes the history of United States welfare states until the enactment of the Personal Responsibility Act. Mink discusses “Welfare as a condition of women’s equality,” (Mink 1). Mink makes an argument about the sub-citizenship of welfare recipients when compared to non-recipients. Mink refers to the history of welfare to its origins to illustrate that the reform would only harm poor single mothers and their children by ending the entitlement to welfare and replacing it with a policy that coerced women to work outside of the home as well as implicitly controlled their sexual and reproductive freedoms. “The Personal Responsibility Act makes poor single mothers decisions for them, substituting moral prescriptions for economic mitigation of their poverty. Moreover, the Act withdraws rights from recipients, thereby restoring the moral regime that sifted, sorted, and ruled welfare applicants and recipients until the late 1960’s.” (Mink 6). Mink advocates that we all recognize and fight for a right to welfare, because “social rights such as welfare are a condition of equal citizenship.” (Mink 32) Mink analyzes the history of civil rights in the law to argue that poor single mothers are being denied citizenship through the denial or restriction of their civil rights as equal citizens in the eyes of the law.

1. Kornbluh, Felicia: The Battle for Welfare Rights University of Pennsylvania Press; Philadelphia, 2007

Felicia Kornbluh’s The Battle for Welfare Rights will be analyzed to illustrate the necessity of social movements in order to obtain or maintain rights. Kornbluh analyzes many states, but pays particular attention to New York, and discusses policies and grassroots movements such as NRWO, which formed to fight for a right to welfare. She goes into detail discussing strategies, successes, failures, and organizational tactics for improving access to welfare benefits as well as the system itself.

1. Reese, Ellen: Backlash against Welfare Mothers, Past and Present University of California Press, 2005

Ellen Reese’s Backlash against Welfare Mothers, Past and Present, will be analyzed to support my argument as well. I would like to use my argument to build off of some of Reese’s main claims. Reese discusses in great detail the conservative movement to change welfare, the barriers that TANF creates to limit or deny access to higher education, and a policy analysis of welfare as well as an analysis of the welfare rights movement. Reese also analyses the movements and backlashes of government in response to the gain of welfare rights. In the end, Reese calls for a new new deal, for the working poor.

1. Edin, Katheryn and Lein, Laura: Making Ends Meet Russell Sage Foundation, New York; 1997

This source provides empirical evidence for my argument. It discusses the fact that low wage work and welfare do not adequately support a family. Women in different states were interviewed to illustrate this reality. This illustrates that many single mother headed families do need subsistence, which they do not get from the market nor from the welfare system. Chicago, Boston, San Antonio, and Charleston were some of the cities examined to prove that single mothers headed families could not survive merely on welfare and low wages, and certainly not on either alone.

1. Neubeck, Kenneth: When Welfare Disappears: The Case for Economic Human Rights Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, New York; 2006

In the book When Welfare Disappears: The Case for Economic Human Rights, Kenneth J. Neubeck discusess economic human rights, and the history of welfare policy in the United States. Neubeck illustrates why single mother recipients have particular difficulty staying off of or avoiding public assistance which is through systemic barriers such as a lack of access to education and job training skills that would allow single mothers to be more competitive in the job market and get out of poverty. “PROWRA reflects what some have called the “new paternalism.” The act subtly communicates a strong distrust of–if not disdain for–impoverished lone mothers even as it spells out measures to control them,” (Neubeck 31). “U.S. welfare policy has reflected and, in many ways, has reinforced society wide systems of class, gender, and racial inequality,” (Neubeck 32). Neubeck discusses the difficulty of single mothers and uses statistics of those on TANF, exiting, and the poverty rate to illustrate the harmful effects of TANF. Neubeck analyses history of the welfare policy as well as TANF and uses a human rights framework as a claim for welfare rights in the United States. Neubeck discusses “invisible barriers” such as mental illness and domestic violence that are not adequately addressed by the system. ultimately, I will refer to Neubeck to illustrate that the right to welfare would encompass the human/economic rights to food/from hunger, to a job or assistance, a right to shelter, a right, although Neubeck states “welfare has never been treated as a right,” (page 35) which is true, it was an entitlement, but if the argument for a right to welfare was framed as essential to fulfilling the human rights of American citizens who were in need, then we could be closer to equality between recipients and non-recipients citizen status.

1. Goldberg, Chad Alan: Citizens and Paupers: Relief, Rights, and Race: From the Freedmen’s Bureau to Workfare the University of Chicago Press, Chicago; 2007.

Goldberg begins the book by stating that “The central thesis of this book is that social welfare policies have been preeminent sites for political struggles over the meaning and boundaries of citizenship in the United States. These struggles are easier to grasp if we understand citizenship as an instrument of social closure through which people monopolize valuable material and symbolic goods while excluding others,” (Goldberg 1). For the purpose of my honors thesis, I will rely on Goldberg’s definition of citizenship when using the term citizen.

1. Gordon, Linda: Women, the State, and Welfare the University of Wisconsin Press United States; 1990

This book is a collection of essays and short pieces addressing the topics listed in the title. Pieces from authors such as Mink, Linda Gordon, Virginia Sapiro, Paula Baker, Barbara Nelson, Jane Jenson, Nancy Fraiser, Elizabeth Schnider, Frances Fox Piven, Diana Pearce, and Teresa Amott. The book addresses a lot of the theoretical framework of analyzing the welfare state, offers an analysis of the history of the welfare state and women’s rights in some parts, and ultimately offers a critique of the welfare state and how it limits/denies women’s rights. The book offers hope for the future of the American welfare state, by illustrating the flaws of the system and encouraging them to be fixed in order to create a better and more efficient welfare state for women. The authors all wrote their pieces from a feminist perspective and address the oppression of women on welfare, since the origins of the American welfare state. I will use the authors to address the gender discrimination within the welfare system and how this in turn oppresses recipients, who are predominantly females (heading the household). This oppression and discrimination in turn creates unequal citizenship between female recipients and non-recipient females.

1. Mink, Gwendolyn and Solinger, Rickie: Welfare: A Documentary History of U.S. Policy and Politics New York University Press, New York: 2003

This book is phenomenal, it offers and extensive and detailed history of American welfare policy and why it is flawed. It goes all the way back to the 1900’s, when welfare was first conceived of and ran by the states on a local basis. What I find particularly useful about this book is both its policy analysis as well as its historical analysis of the welfare state, and I will be using both analysis in my argument. It has many short articles, pieces, or chapters from books, cases, basically any type of document that had anything to do with American welfare, both Conservative and Liberal commentary, opinions, and advocacy. It will be extremely useful for both my own analysis and counter argument. I will use the cases discussed to illustrate the Supreme Courts power in creating or denying welfare rights and a right to welfare. I will also analyze the time periods of these cases and what was going on with both public opinion (the welfare rights movement) and with welfare policy at the time as well as the liberal or conservative influence on both the government and the public, depending on the time period.

1. Noble, Charles: Welfare as We Knew It: A Political History of the American Welfare State Oxford University Press, New York; 1997

Charles Noble offers the reader a deep and extensive analysis of the political history of the American welfare state. What is particularly interesting of Noble is his comparison of the American welfare state to the welfare systems of other industrious nations, and illustrates how America has the most poorly designed and implemented welfare system of all of the developed nations. He then breaks his analysis into three sections that were meaningful to American welfare policy, the Progressive Era, the New Deal Era, and the Great Society Era, and discusses the conservative backlash to these liberal time periods of widening rights for recipients. Noble illusrtaes why reform is difficult in America, and ends the book discussing the future of reform, and offers some great advice based on his analysis of Conservative backlash, he suggests how actors and recipients should move in this politically hostile environment.

1. Davis, Martha F. Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, 1960-1973 Yale University Press, New Haven; 1993

This book is phenomenal, and in great detail discusses the welfare rights movements of the late sixties and early seventies. Davis provides us with background, of how legal aid was created, the idea in the legal world that poor people deserved representation as well. The lawyers in this time period played an essential role in aiding the movement by assisting the recipients with fair hearings and class action law suits. Also, this book addresses the need for more lawyers in the field.

Cloward, Richard A, Piven, Frances Fox Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare Vintage

“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”

Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry’s ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure. “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” (Deathly Hallows 723)

This exchange is arguably the most important conversation in all 41,000 pages of the Harry Potter books. It takes place at the end of the final Harry Potter book, when Harry meets his (dead) mentor in a dream-like state following Voldemort’s second-to-last attempt to kill him. Harry presents Dumbledore with a binary choice, as if “real” and “happening inside my head” are mutually exclusive. As John Granger writes, “Dumbledore’s response reveals that he thinks Harry has created a false dichotomy. There is another option to account for his experience than just either/or…there is a nonmaterial (albeit, anything but immaterial) unity between what is real and what is happening in our heads” (Granger, Lectures 178, 179). Dumbledore casting aside Harry’s dichotomy, and replacing it with an option that offers the unification of opposites, is the most literal example of Rowling’s alternative to the dualism of the apocalyptic myth.

That alternative is evident throughout the series, though not always so explicitly spelled out. Rowling’s characters are carefully crafted so very few can be easily classified using a binary paradigm. On the surface, the “good guys” are a ragtag group, poster-children for diversity. Harry, the hero, was raised in the Muggle world and is a half-blood; his mother was a Muggle-born (a witch or wizard from a non-magical family). His best friend Ron’s family are Purebloods, but considered “the biggest blood-traitor family there is” for their acceptance of Muggles and Muggle-borns (Deathly Hallows 482). Harry’s other best friend, Hermione, despite being the “cleverest witch of [her] age” is a Muggle-born (Prisoner of Azkaban 253). Other members of the alliance include a half-giant, a werewolf, a Squib (someone from a magical family born without magic), and others who blur the lines between magical and non-magical or human and magical creature (Order of the Phoenix 173-174).

More significant than this superficial, visible diversity, however, is Rowling’s use of morally ambiguous characters to illustrate the grey area between good and evil. According to Elizabeth Rosen, morally ambiguous characters are one way in which the postmodern style manifests in an author’s adaptation of the apocalyptic narrative (14). Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, fought against Voldemort and rejected his Pureblood family ‘s prejudices against Muggles. By a binary standard, that should make him good; he fights for the “right” cause. The way Rowling writes him, however, he is often excessively cruel to those he considers “other.” His extreme mistreatment of his house-elf (servant) ultimately led to a betrayal that cost him his life (OotP 831-332).

Ironically, earlier in the series, Sirius is the one who says to Harry, “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals” (Goblet of Fire 525). He talks the talk, but ultimately doesn’t walk the walk. By creating a character who fights with the good guys but shows the prejudice of the bad guys, Rowling challenges the reader (like Dumbledore challenges Harry) to accept a reality that can’t be explained by the apocalyptic, binary worldview. Other “good” guys include a spy in Voldemort’s inner circle, a thief/smuggler, and the owner of a bar that caters to a very shady clientele (OotP 173-174). Not exactly as innocent a group as the 144,000 virgins redeemed in the Book of Revelation (14:4).

It is Dumbledore himself, though, who presents the biggest challenge to a dualistic moral system. Rosen argues that authors of postmodern apocalyptic fiction translate the traditional deity figure into secular terms by humanizing the deity (xxiii). Some writers create more than one deity, splitting the traits of the traditional Judeo-Christian God among different characters (Rosen xxiii). Rowling, on the other hand, uses the same technique Rosen describes while analyzing the work of Alan Moore, that is, she “conflates the God/Devil binary structure of the traditional apocalyptic paradigm in order to represent a far more shaded morality than Revelation allows” (Rosen 8).

In the first four books of the series, Dumbledore is portrayed as powerful, infallible, and all-knowing. Harry (and therefore the readers, who get only his side of the story from the books’ third-person limited point of view) considers Dumbledore the greatest sorcerer in the world, whose “powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named [Voldemort] at the height of his strength” (Chamber of Secrets 17). When Voldemort returns at the end of the fourth book, Harry expects Dumbledore to be the savior of the wizarding world, the only one who could possibly defeat Voldemort.

Throughout the fifth, six, and seventh books, however, this illusion is systematically destroyed as Harry loses faith in Dumbledore and learns about the more unsavory details of his past. In the fifth book, Harry blames Dumbledore for Sirius’s death, and Dumbledore admits to making “an old man’s mistakes…I had fallen into the trap I had foreseen, that I had told myself I could avoid, that I must avoid.” (OotP 838). Not only must Harry accept that Dumbledore’s plans were flawed, Harry realizes that it is, in fact, his task to defeat Voldemort. For the first time, Dumbledore is neither all-knowing nor all-powerful. In the sixth book, Harry watches Dumbledore die, leaving no doubt about his mentor’s mortality (Half-Blood Prince 595-596). The illusion of Dumbledore’s invincibility is shattered. After reading Dumbledore’s obituary, Harry admits to himself, “[h]e had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well, but ever since reading this obituary he had been forced to recognize that he had barely known him at all” (DH 21).

In the seventh book, Dumbledore takes on the qualities of a Devil or Antichrist figure. It is revealed that in his youth, Dumbledore was ambitious, power hungry, single-minded, and above all, committed to “cleansing” the world of Muggles and Muggle-borns – the very traits Voldemort is famous for (DH ch. 18). At first, Harry refuses to believe Dumbledore could be anything but “the embodiment of goodness and wisdom,” but eventually the evidence against Dumbledore is overwhelming (DH 360). Harry, seeing the world in terms of moral absolutes, begins to hate Dumbledore. Dumbledore’s fall from grace is complete; Harry’s feelings about him could not be farther away from the respect and adoration he felt in the first four books.

Hermione vainly attempts to convince Harry not to see Dumbledore as completely evil. She reminds him of the heroic Dumbledore they knew and tries to make Harry understand that “He changed, Harry, he changed! It’s as simple as that! Maybe he did those things when he was seventeen, but the whole of the rest of his life was devoted to fighting the Dark Arts!” (DH 361). Harry, however, can’t help but adamantly insist he’s been betrayed. According to his idea of moral, if Dumbledore wasn’t all good, he must have been all evil. Trapped in this all-or-nothing mentality, Harry takes it far too personally when Dumbledore’s immorality is revealed. He later wonders whether everything Dumbledore ever told him was a lie.

Rowling has a tendency to introduce characters as either good or evil, then gradually reveal over the course of the series how they actually embody some combination or middle ground between the two. For most of the series, however, Harry stubbornly refuses to recognize anything beyond the two extremes. He is devastated when he discovers his father, who he idolizes as a martyr and about whom he has never heard anything but praise, was a bully as a teenager. His feelings are described as “horrified and unhappy,” (OotP 650) and “as though the memory of it was eating him from inside” (OotP 653). He even goes so far as to wonder whether his father had forced his mother to marry him. He can’t accept the idea of his father as anything other than completely good or completely evil. “For nearly five years the thought of his father had been a source of comfort, of inspiration. Whenever someone had told him he was like James, he had glowed with pride inside. And now… now he felt cold and miserable at the thought of him” (OotP 653-654).

Harry feels similar anguish each time a character proves to be more than what he or she seems. After Sirius dies, and Dumbledore reveals his mistreatment of the house-elf as the cause, Harry is furious at Dumbledore for his implicit criticism of Sirius. “The rage that had subsided briefly flared in him again…He was on his feet again, furious, ready to fly at Dumbledore, who had plainly not understood Sirius at all, how brave he was, how much he had suffered…” (OotP 832). For Harry, Sirius’s sacrifice meant he could never have been anything but completely good. It’s impossible for Harry to reconcile Sirius’s good and bad traits; he can only see his godfather, like Dumbledore and his father, as one or the other.

Harry also fails to understand that not everyone shares this dualistic worldview. When Dumbledore talks about Sirius’s flaws, Harry immediately accuses him of implying Sirius’s death was only getting what he deserved. Dumbledore, of course, believes nothing of the sort. In fact, he is “ever on guard against letting his perception be clouded by labels, prejudicial stigmas, and pigeon holes” but he also knows Harry is not yet capable of accepting this type of non-binary morality (Granger, Keys 195) .

Of course, Harry’s apocalyptic sense of morality cuts both ways. It not only prevents his acceptance of bad traits in good characters, it blinds him to any redeeming characteristics in so-called “evil” characters. Harry hates his Muggle relatives, not without good reason. They neglected and abused him as a child, locked him in a cupboard under the stairs and forced him to do all the housework. The second Dumbledore starts to say something that could redeem his aunt, Harry interrupts, “’She doesn’t love me,’ said Harry at once. ‘She doesn’t give a damn – ‘ ‘But she took you,’ Dumbledore cut across him. ‘She may have taken you grudgingly, furiously, unwillingly, bitterly, yet still she took you” (OotP 835-836). This time, Dumbledore doesn’t let Harry get away with using her faults to eliminate her virtue. Obviously Dumbledore doesn’t think she was a good surrogate parent. But he also refuses to condemn her as evil within a binary moral system.

Severus Snape seems to hate Harry from the first second he sets eyes on him, and the feeling quickly becomes mutual. At eleven years old, Harry decides that because Snape picks on him for (apparently) no good reason, he must be evil. For the following six books, nothing can convince him Snape is actually working to protect him. Harry suspects Snape of helping Voldemort in every scheme, even after Dumbledore repeatedly assures him that he trusts Snape completely. Harry doesn’t understand the moral gymnastics required for Snape to put on a convincing show as a double agent. Spying for Dumbledore within Voldemort’s inner circle means maintaining his cover, at all costs. Displaying anything less than hatred of Harry would raise Voldemort’s suspicion. In Harry’s eyes, however, Snape must be as evil as his actions.

After Sirius’s death, Harry uses his righteous certainty of Snape’s guilt to deny his own. He demands Dumbledore give him a good explanation for Snape’s behavior. After getting one, “Harry disregarded this; he felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, it seemed to be easing his own sense of dreadful guilt” (OotP 833). Even though it comes at the cost of powerful allies like Snape and Dumbledore, seeing the world in black and white makes Harry’s life far simpler and his emotions easier for him to handle. It isn’t until the very end of the series that Harry finally matures enough to lose this crutch and appreciate shades of grey.

Rowling’s use of third-person limited narrative voice produces an effect similar to the experience of reading the Book of Revelation. Allowing the reader to know only what Harry knows evokes the same feeling of tunnel vision in John of Patmos’s first-person account in the Book of Revelation. By letting the reader see everything Harry sees and feel everything Harry feels, Rowling also allows the reader to share Harry’s transformation from a binary moral system to a non-binary moral system when it happens in the seventh book. The conversation Harry has with Dumbledore before the final battle sets in motion the events that prove Harry has moved beyond binary morality. In the epilogue, nineteen years after the events in the last chapter, Rowling reveals Harry named his middle child Albus Severus, giving him both Dumbledore’s and Snape’s first names. More than signaling Harry’s acceptance of their ambiguous moralities, Albus Severus symbolizes the end of the wizarding world’s metanarrative of prejudice.

At Harry’s school, Hogwarts, students are sorted into four “houses,” or dormitories. Each is known for different personality traits – Hufflepuffs are loyal, Ravenclaws are smart, Slytherins are ambitious, and Gryffindors are brave. Under these simple adjectives, however, lies the metanarrative that explains conflict in the wizarding world. Slytherins are shady characters, if not downright evil. As Hagrid tells Harry in Book 1, “There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin. You-Know-Who [Voldemort] was one” (Sorcerer’s Stone). In addition to Voldemort, Snape was in Slytherin, as was Harry’s childhood nemesis Draco Malfoy. Harry’s experiences with Slytherins paint them as prejudiced against Muggles, power-hungry, and devious. Gryffindors, on the other hand, can do no wrong.

This dualism is reinforced throughout the books, up to and including the final battle, during which all the Slytherins leave the school to protect themselves or fight with Voldemort, and almost all the Gryffindors try to stay and fight. The only hint that there might be an alternative is Dumbledore’s speech after Voldemort is reborn. “Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust” (GOF 723). That Harry’s son is named after members of both houses who were not wholly good or evil recognizes the need to bridge the rift between the two houses. The Gryffindor-Slytherin combination is a unification of contraries, and represents the end of apocalyptic morality in the wizarding world.

Harry’s eventual acceptance of Snape’s true loyalty and Dumbledore’s transformation from devil to god to neither one or the other would have impossible within a binary framework. The fact that Dumbledore could embody all three identities forces readers to consider “very complex and shaded questions that the entity now poses about the nature of evil…” (Rosen 17). By inviting the reader to share Harry’s transcendence of the apocalyptic moral paradigm, Rowling “satisfies the need we all feel for meaning that is not moralizing and for virtue that is heroic and uniting rather than divisive” (Granger, Keys 236).

References

Granger, John. The Deathly Hallows Lectures: The Hogwarts Professor Explains the Final Harry Potter Adventure. 2nd ed. Allentown, PA: Zossima Press, 2008. Print.

—. Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader. Allentown, PA: Zossima Press, 2007. Print.

Rosen, Elizabeth. Apocalyptic Transformation: Apocalypse and the Postmodern Imagination. Lanham, MD: Lexington – Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Print.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York, New York: Scholastic, 1999. Print.

—. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York, New York: Scholastic, 2007. Print.

—. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York, New York: Scholastic, 2000. Print.

—. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. New York, New York: Scholastic, 2005. Print.

—. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York, New York: Scholastic, 2003. Print.

—. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New York, New York: Scholastic, 1999. Print.

—. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York, New York: Scholastic, 1998. Print.

Allan, Robin. Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1999. Print. Robin Allan’s book discusses Walt Disney’s animated fairy tales as being profoundly influenced by European culture and European folktales. He cites many of the well-known animated tales such as Cinderella and Snow White and meticulously examines how their re-working of characters and themes is attributed to European sources. In addition, he analyzes Disney’s tales in regard to the pop culture of the time, drawing on the audiences that were targeted and reasons why.

Golberg, Stefany. “The Smart Set: Happy 200th, Snow White! – October 1, 2010.” The Smart Set. 1 Oct. 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. . The article briefly comments on the changes that fairy tales have underwent to come to be as we know them today. Whereas today they are more geared for children and are more colorful and cheerful in their content, centuries ago they were more dramatic and gory, geared for an illiterate audience that used the tales as melodramatic entertainment. Golberg attributes the transition to a children’s audience to hope, the hope that the child and other characters exhibit in the tales. Citing Walt Disney’s Snow White as an example, she shows the avid optimism and hope that is present in its elements, as opposed to that in the Brother Grimm’s version of Snow White.

Haase, Donald P. “Gold into Straw: Fairy Tale Movies for Children and the Culture Industry.” The Lion and the Unicorn 12.2 (1988): 193-207. Project MUSE. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. The journal article addresses two sides of a debate about the Disneyfication of fairy tales: one about the definite structure of a fairy tale and how Disney distorts it with his adaptations and the other about the fairy tales having never contained any eternal truths but rather reflected the values of their time, as did Disney’s. The article discusses varying motifs and structural changes that fairy tales have underwent as a function of new power relations, morals, and experiences of the society (i.e. patriarchal structure, female roles). In addition, analyses of other scholars such as Charles Eidsvik, Bruno Bettelheim, and Clarke Sayers are included.

Jean, Lydie. “CHARLES PERRAULT’S PARADOX: HOW ARISTOCRATIC FAIRY TALES BECAME SYNONYMOUS WITH FOLKLORE CONSERVATION.” TRAMES: Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences 11.3 (2007): 276-83. Estonian Academy Publishers. Web. .In this paper, Lydie Jean discusses Charles Perrault’s work as it relates to traditional folklore. Jean argues that Perrault was not interested in conserving folklore in his fairy tale interpretations, but the popularity of his works eventually resulted in that. She shows a connection between Charles Perrault’s fairy tales and the aristocrats who were the tales’ primary audience. She mentions how his interpretations differed from the original folk tales that came before them, and these changes made them more relatable to the aristocrats. For example, she mentions some tales have witty remarks that were obviously directed at the educated people, and that some of the morals in the end were geared at the upper class. She however does not give specific examples that support those claims with the exception of The Sleeping Beauty. Though, no details about The Sleeping Beauty and its relation to the aristocratic lifestyle are discussed.

Knox, Skip. “Germany after the Thirty Years War.” Boise State University. Boise State University. Web. . The source addresses the after-math of the Thirty Years’ War in Germany in the economic, social, and governing spheres. It provides statistical data of population and land loss and discussed changes in trade and labor relations that ensued. Although relatively short, it gives much helpful information and insight on Germany’s post-war state.

Orenstein, Catherine. Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale. New-York: Basic, 2003. Print. Orenstein’s book traces the history of Little Red Riding Hood in various social contexts, analyzing them in light of the values common to the times. She cites Charles Perrault’s fairy tales how they are reflections of the court society present in 18th century France. It discusses elements of aristocratic lifestyle that influenced the writing style and content of the tales. In addition it portrays Perrault’s literature as an attempt to defend the aristocracy’s lifestyle and strengthen it.

Perrault, Charles, and Judith Bronte. “”Cinderilla or The Little Glass Slipper” by Charles Perrault, 1729.” Judith Bronte – Christian Poetry, Inspirational Romance, John Bunyan, & Christian Romance. Web. . French to English translation of Charles Perrault’s Cinderella.

Pineiro, Victor. “The Moral of Snow White.” Popten. 24 June 2008. Web. . The article examines Walt Disney’s Snow White as a case of war-propaganda. Pineiro analyzes the changes that the characters underwent since the Grimm’s version, and attributes their new function to the unstable political condition of pre World War II. Fight against Communism, gender segregation, and a “call-to-arms” are some of the higher political purposes of Snow White that Pineiro considers.

Weber, Eugen. “Fairies and Hard Facts: The Reality of Folktales.” Journal of the History of Ideas 42.1 (1981): 93-113. JSTOR. University of Pennsylvania Press. Web. . Eugen Weber begins the article with a critical analysis of the Grimm Brother’s Hansel and Gretel, arguing that it is a grim reflection of the prevailing hard times characterized by hunger, poverty, danger, and high mortality rates of women leading to stepparent/stepchildren issues. He explores various themes and common situations found in fairy tales and their relation to real life at the time. His work continuously cites the apparent shortcomings in Bruno Bettleheim’s psychological analysis of the tales and offers alternative analyses in areas of disagreement.

Zipes, Jack David. The Brothers Grimm from Enchanted Forests to the Modern World. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Print. In his book, Jack Zipes explores the journey of the Brother Grimm’s fairy tales, starting with how they gathering the tales from storytellers in early 19th century and ending with the development of new fairy tales post-1945. The book discusses symbols and characteristics of heroes found in their fairy tales, the opinions of others regarding the tales, and the shifts the fairy tales underwent in their themes, coinciding with a shift in targeted audience (i.e. adults to children).

Ilya Ryvin
Honors Thesis Colloquium
Prof. Lee Quinby
Position Paper #2

This begs the question: What is transmedia storytelling?

Transmedia Storytelling: What Is It?

On April 6, 2010, the Producers Guild of America made an announcement that many in the media industry were waiting for: the expansion of the Guild’s Producers Code of Credits to include the category of Transmedia Producer. With this announcement came a guideline as to what constitutes a “transmedia narrative”; it states:
A Transmedia Narrative project or franchise must consist of three (or more) narrative storylines existing within the same fictional universe on any of the following platforms: Film, Television, Short Film, Broadband, Publishing, Comics, Animation, Mobile, Special Venues, DVD/Blu-ray/CD-ROM, Narrative Commercial and Marketing rollouts, and other technologies that may or may not currently exist. These narrative extensions are NOT the same as repurposing material from one platform to be cut or repurposed to different platforms. (“Code of Credits – New Media”)

Almost immediately, these guidelines sparked a healthy debate, some arguing that the definition was too narrow in scope. For example, Christy Dena, a prominent media scholar, questioned the requirement of a work having to permeate at least three different media platforms, thereby ignoring transmedia works that span only two platforms (“PGA’s Transmedia Producer!”). Likewise, the Transmedia Hollywood: S/Telling the Story conference held in March 2010 ignited a similar debate amongst a number of industry insiders who could not even agree on the newness of transmedia, with some arguing that it is ultimately a rehash of “long-standing practices” (“Hollywood Goes ‘Transmedia’”).
While this development within the PGA certainly legitimizes transmedia as an industry practice, the debates within the scholarly and creative communities reveal an interesting problem: we, as of yet, have no authoritative definition for transmedia storytelling. Henry Jenkins, a noted transmedia scholar and USC professor, offers an explanation for this omission; he argues:
From the beginning, transmedia has been a site of experimentation, innovation, and exploration at the heart of mainstream media…. As such, the transmedia discussion has always moved across registers and as a consequence, needed to be expansive, to include anyone who wants to engage with these topics and who is willing to put these ideas into practice…. This very expansiveness is what allows us to bring many different voices to the table, to map diverse kinds of experiments, and to promote new explorations and innovations. (“Hollywood Goes ‘Transmedia’”)

Although the PGA offers a perfectly adequate definition, I agree with Jenkins that we “should push back on any attempt to too quickly formalize the limits or boundaries of this practice” (“Hollywood Goes ‘Transmedia’”). However, the simple fact that the PGA was able to create a definition means that there are a number of transmedia practices that are largely agreed upon as central to the form. In fact, several key players in the field, specifically Starlite Runner’s Jeff Gomez, have been instrumental in lobbying the PGA to get the aforementioned classification approved (“Hollywood Goes ‘Transmedia’”). Therefore, I want to use the PGA’s definition for transmedia storytelling as the foundation for my definition. Building on that foundation, I can take what other scholars have said about transmedia storytelling and apply their theories to case studies, allowing me to analyze what works and what does not. By no means will my definition be authoritative. In fact, because the field is in a constant state of flux, my definition may very well be obsolete half a year from now. Nevertheless, I am but another “voice” bringing my own perspectives about what I have seen, and as you will see in section 3, my goal is to promote further “explorations and innovations,” specifically through the application of transmedia practices in television (“Hollywood Goes ‘Transmedia’”).

Transmedia Storytelling: Extensions
In his book Convergence Culture, Where Old and New Media Collide, Jenkins discusses “transmedia storytelling” at length. He describes it as the following:
A transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole. In the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best−so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels, and comics; its world might be explored through game play or experienced as an amusement park attraction. Each franchise entry needs to be self-contained so you don’t need to have seen the film to enjoy the game, and vice versa. Any given product is a point of entry into the franchise as a whole. Reading across the media sustains depth of experience and motivates more consumption. Redundancy burns up Fan interest and causes franchises to fail. Offering new levels of insight and experience refreshes the franchise and sustains consumer loyalty. (Convergence Culture 95-96)

Before I continue, it is important to explain why two portions of Jenkins’ definition have been highlighted. When comparing the PGA’s definition to Jenkins’, a number of similarities become obvious. Both definitions agree that each text in a transmedia franchise should contribute something new to the whole, and that redundancy should be avoided. It is also the case that both definitions mention the actual dispersal of information across different media platforms, as they should. However, Jenkins’ definition deviates in two ways: he claims that each medium should do “what it does best,” and that “each franchise entry needs to be self-contained so you don’t need to have seen the film to enjoy the game, and vice versa. Any given product is a point of entry into the franchise as a whole” (Convergence Culture 96). By analyzing The Matrix franchise, it becomes evident rather quickly why both points are not absolutes.

Extensions in The Matrix
Jenkins’ argues that The Matrix franchise, developed by Andy and Larry Wachowski, is the most ambitious attempt at transmedia storytelling (“Transmedia Storytelling: Business, Aesthetics…” 14). When the The Matrix hit theaters in 1999, no one could have predicted that it would become a worldwide phenomenon. The film, which tells the story of humanity’s struggle for survival against brutal machine overlords, eventually went on to gross more than $463 million worldwide (Box Office Mojo). But the Wachowskis did not stop there; the brothers had a plan that would expand the universe of The Matrix beyond the scope of just one film. What soon followed were two sequels, a series of comics and web-comics, a number of anime films released on DVD, and two videos games.
Each text was designed to contribute new material to the narrative without rehashing the same old information. In the first film, Morpheus briefly recounts the war between man and machine. He does not divulge much about the war, but at one point states, “We don’t know who struck first, us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky” (The Matrix). “The Second Renaissance,” a two-part animated film included in The Animatrix DVD, explores the entire history of the war. It even reveals what Morpheus meant in his cryptic speech to Neo by showing how humans used nano-machines to darken the sky and block out the sun (The Animatrix). In this case, the Wachowski’s managed to successfully add distinctive and valuable information to the world of The Matrix by expanding through the anime something briefly mentioned in the film.
However, not every extension was this successful; in some instances, the extensions hurt the franchise. For example, the story of Kid was first introduced in “Kid’s Story” in The Animatrix. He is next seen in the first sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, interacting with Neo. He is never properly introduced in the film, and the interaction between Kid and Neo alludes to events that occurred in the anime. By the third movie, The Matrix Revolutions, Kid plays an even larger role where he heroically defends Zion against the robot invasion. This lack of formal introduction in the films presents a problem for those who have not seen the anime, so much so that when Kid has his heroic moment at the end of the third film, it is difficult to react with anything other than indifference. However, those who saw Kid’s background story in the anime may have a different reaction when watching the same scene, having been exposed to him in a much more meaningful way.
According to Jenkins’ definition of transmedia, both the film and the anime should provide potential points of entry into the franchise “for different audience segments” (“Transmedia Storytelling 101”). For example, both film and television attract relatively large and diverse crowds; comic books, animes, and video games, however, are more tailored to a specific niche (Convergence Culture 96). In other words, an anime fan can enter the franchise through The Animatrix, a gamer can enter through Enter the Matrix, and a film buff can enter through the film. Once inducted into the franchise through one entry point, further exploration of the franchise through other media is encouraged; a gamer might want to watch the film after playing the video game and vice versa.
However, this is only possible if each point of entry is self-contained, as can be seen by the backlash the franchise encountered. A number of critics panned the films, arguing that they “were not sufficiently self-contained and bordered on incoherent,” and a number of video game critics complained that the story of Enter the Matrix “isn’t strong enough to stand on its own…making the game worth a look for hard-core fans of The Matrix films, but a buggy disappointment for just about anyone else” (Convergence Culture 65; Gerstmann). Following Jenkins’ definition, the video game should engage more than just fans of the film; it should also work as an entry point for people who have not seen the films. In this case, however, it is unlikely that a person who played the game will be engaged enough to explore the rest of the franchise if his experience with the game was disappointing.
It is here that I take issue with Jenkin’s claim that every “franchise entry needs to be self-contained” (Convergence Culture 96). I contend that only the primary text needs to be self-contained, and extensions should be used to explore the storyworld, or “diegesis,” of the primary text; these extensions can flesh out backstories, histories, and locations to create a multilayered universe (Film Art: An Introduction 76). Extensions that do this and strive to be self-contained should stay within the universe of the primary text, but focus on elements outside of its direct narrative. This claim implies several things:
1) Not all texts are created equal. There is one primary text that drives the core plot (everything that is “explicitly presented”) through which extensions develop (Film Art: An Introduction 76).
2) Extensions are optional. They should not be mandatory for understanding the narrative of the primary text.
3) Some extensions explore the storyworld by expanding on something that appeared in the primary text. Others can simply expand the storyworld without referencing material from the primary text.
4) Not all extensions need to act as entry points into a franchise.
5) Transmedia producers need to understand how to best utilize the conventions of the platforms through which they create their extensions.
These points exist to highlight the fact that producers need to be highly selective when choosing to extend their narratives across different media platforms. They need to understand and utilize the conventions of the platforms through which they create their extensions, otherwise they will repeat the mistakes the Wachowskis made with their franchise. I contend that this is what Jenkins meant when he said, “each medium does what it does best” (Convergence Culture 95). However, this too is difficult to determine What works in a ten minute animated short may not work as well in a video game.
As I mentioned already, Enter the Matrix was seen as a failure due to its lack of self-containment and uninspired gameplay, the result of the Wachowski’s lack of understanding of the video game platform. Stephen Johnson argues that video games emphasize “form” instead of “content,” and he contends that “with the occasional exception, the actual content of the game is often childish…” (Everything Bad Is Good for You 39). While I agree that some games like Pac-Man and Halo do focus more on form, an increasing number of video games today do have “complex storylines” with “memorable and endearing cast of characters” that drive player engagement (Shoemaker). Therefore, there should be a focus on not just form, but the ways form and content work together to create a compelling game. In the case of Enter the Matrix, the Wachowski’s tried too hard to intertwine the game’s narrative with the film’s narrative, jumbling the coherence of the game. At the same time, by using the game to fill in the narrative gaps between the first and second films, they ignored the form of the game, essentially turning Enter the Matrix into a mini-film. Critics noted that this problem was so pervasive that at times narrative cut scenes would interrupt actual gameplay (Gerstmann). Perhaps the game would have served the Wachowski’s better if they chose to explore some other facet of the Matrix world, one that has no mention in the film but is still clearly recognized as belonging to that universe. This way, the game does not have to rely on the film for coherence and a gamer can enjoy the game on its own merits, with a cohesive storyline and form that work together.
On the other end of the spectrum, The Animatrix highlights not only the failures of the Wachowski’s transmedia experiment, but also its successes. I have already demonstrated how “Kid’s Story” created problems for the films. I have also demonstrated how “The Second Renaissance” successfully fleshed out the history of the war between man and the machines from a conversation in the first film. It is important to emphasize that this extension is not necessary for us to understand the story of the first film; we are told that mankind fought a war against the machines and lost, and that all subsequent events are the result of that conflict. However, those who watch “The Second Renaissance” can achieve a deeper understanding of that conflict, and ultimately, the world that The Matrix inhabits. Jenkins calls this deeper understand “additive comprehension,” asserting that “each new texts adds a new piece of information which forces us to revise our understanding of the fiction as a whole” (“Transmedia Storytelling 101”). Furthermore, The Animatrix is also unique in that it can attract a niche audience to the franchise. Made up of eight films, The Animatrix is a collaboration between The Wachowskis and a number of renowned Japanese anime producers. It is arguably the best example of a stand-alone extension within the franchise, and I agree that this is true to some extent. By collaborating with a number of well-known Japanese anime producers, the Wachowskis succeeded in creating eight varied and visually exciting stories. This by itself can be a potential attractor for someone who simply likes anime and is a fan of said producers. These works offer a new interpretation of the universe within the franchise, and that interpretation may inspire further investigation.
I have already said that transmedia storytelling builds worlds, and that transmedia extensions are crucial to that process. But how can transmedia producers design transmedia narratives? What separates transmedia narratives from other grand, multi-platform stories from the past (Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings). And what happens when there are multiple authors in one franchise, as was the case in The Animatrix. The follow section will explore these issues, and offer further insight into the question: What is transmedia storytelling?

Transmedia Storytelling: World-building, Additive Comprehension, Adaptation, and the Issue of Canon

In Convergence Culture, Jenkins quotes a Hollywood screenwriter:
When I first started, you would pitch a good story because without a good story, you didn’t really have a film. Later, once sequels started to take off, you pitched a character because a good character could support multiple stories. And now, you pitch a world because a world can support multiple characters and multiple stories across multiple media. (Convergence Culture 114)

The screenwriter highlights a very important point: there has been an increase in the number of films and television programs that take place in highly expansive and imaginative story worlds. With all this excitement hailing transmedia as the next big thing, it is important to note that transmedia storytelling is not an entirely novel concept. Specifically, the notion of dispersing a story or world across a number of different platforms is not unique to transmedia storytelling as it is defined today. There have been a number of media franchises in the past that did just this, perhaps the most notable example being George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise. The first trilogy started with Star Wars: A New Hope, released in 1997, and ended with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in 1983. It sparked a number of tertiary texts aimed at expanding the universe, focusing on characters and stories that were ultimately unexplored in the films. While some of these works were produced under the watchful eye of Lucas, many were produced by outside authors who ultimately had little to no affiliation with Star Wars or Lucas.

Works Cited
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.
“Code of Credits – New Media.” Producers Guild of America. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. .
Dena, Christy. “PGA’s Transmedia Producer!” Christy’s Corner of the Universe. 5 Apr. 2010. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. .
Gerstmann, Jeff. “Enter the Matrix Review.” GameSpot. 20 May 2003. Web. 10 Nov. 2010. .
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Print.
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The theme of inter-generational conflict in American Pastoral demonstrates the collective desire to “one-up” or be different from one’s parents; in other words, to become more American. Of the youngsters of his neighborhood, Zuckerman says, “…we were steered relentlessly in the direction of success: a better existence was going to be ours” (41). The ability to step forward and do something better comes from the immense American energy after the Great Depression, according to Zuckerman (40). Not only are Zuckerman and his childhood peers eager to move forward and make a name for themselves, but it is “mostly the friction between generations [that is] sufficient to give us purchase to move forward” (42). The children are highly aware of signs of immigrant status, like whether or not a neighbor’s mother has an accent (43). Keen to their surroundings, the children of Zuckerman’s area are observant of the indicators of “the minutest gradations of social position” (43) among their families.

Zuckerman reports a “generalized mistrust of the Gentile world” (41) at the time of his childhood and “exclusions the goyim still [wish] to preserve” (44) at his high school reunion, 45 years later. The words “gentile” and “goyim” both mean non-Jew, but “goyim” is slightly offensive. With the use of almost derogatory language when referring to non-Jews, Zuckerman demonstrates the lingering attitude of distrust.

Part of the conflict between people of Zuckerman’s age in the 1940s and their parents is that the “adults… [are] striving and improving themselves through [the children]” (42). Zuckerman says of his generation’s astuteness that there is an “unfiltered way meaning comes to children, just flowing off the surface of things” (43). It is important for the young ones to interpret those around them to help carve a sense of self-identity. It is easy for them to “[grasp] how every family’s different set of circumstances set each family a distinctive different human problem” (43). It is the very human problem that each family suffers that pushes the younger generation to move toward success.

The reader notes the presence of Jewish elements in Zuckerman’s life in the past and the present. Zuckerman mentions the yahrzeit candles some of his neighbors have when he is a child (43). Another element of Judaism is the goodie bag of rugelach that everyone receives at the end of the Weequahic High School reunion (46). Rugelach is an old, traditional variety of Jewish cookie. The phenomenon of the high school reunion brings together people who have not spoken in years. After growing into adults and being independent, everyone inevitably returns to the personality and energy of high school. Zuckerman says to an old friend, Mendy Gurlik, that “after years and years of painting ourselves opaque, this carries us straight back to when we were sure we were transparent” (51). This quote suggests that the Jewish men and women who grew up with Nathan Zuckerman spend years trying to be different, to be American, but the reunion returns them to the time when their shared raw Jewishness was impossible to hide. In their adult years, these people succeed in disguising their Jewish heritage in the hopes of acceptance and success in a “typical” or “mainstream” American life. This sense of “passing” is one of the central themes of American Pastoral and indicative of the necessity to relinquish one’s Jewish heritage in order to succeed. Just by participating in the reunion, Zuckerman can say he has an “uncanny sense that what goes on behind what we see is what I was seeing” (52). He is comfortably aware that everyone at the reunion is putting on a face, trying to be someone else. This “someone else” is someone they strive to be; someone like the Swede who manages to be the darling of the community for his near-gentile looks and abilities. That is to say, everyone at the reunion, though the majority are Jewish, are trying to downplay their Jewishness, which has been a natural behavior since before high school.

The reader sees the social barrier between Jews and non-Jews with the appearance of an old classmate with a shiksa, or Gentile woman, for a wife. The wife questions her husband, Schrimmer, about the nicknames she hears everyone calling each other at the reunion. She asks, “Why are they all Mutty and Utty and Dutty and Tutty? If his name is Charles, why is he called Tutty?” (57). To this, Schrimmer responds, “I shouldn’t have brought you… I can’t explain it… nobody can. It’s beyond explanation. It just is” (57). Not only does this exchange show the rifling animosity Schrimmer can still show for his Gentile woman who is his wife, but it broadcasts the kind of unique Jewish nickname-giving of the Newark Jewish community that divides it from its non-Jewish counterpart.

Zuckerman’s encounter with Jerry Levov, the Swede’s younger brother and a classmate of Zuckerman’s, fills in a lot of blanks of information about the Swede. Most importantly, Zuckerman learns that the Swede has just died within the last week. Zuckerman concludes that the Swede must have known he was dying at their dinner meeting and wanting to express some unfulfilled emotions by speaking to a long-lost acquaintance (82). Unfortunately, the Swede never speaks about writing a book about his dad, as he mentions in his letter to Zuckerman imploring him to meet for dinner. How far had the Swede’s seemingly perfect life crumbled? Jerry says, tragically, that the Swede is “a perfectly decent person who could have escaped stupid guilt forever” (68). What exactly did the Swede not escape? Is death the only thing that interrupted perfection?

Slowly, Zuckerman begins to realize the façade of the Swede. He, too, was trying to pass, but really lived a double life. Zuckerman learns from Jerry about the Swede’s revolutionary daughter, Merry, who detonated a bomb in a post office during the Vietnam War, killing one person. This is the first real chip in the perfect picture of the Swede’s life. Jerry recalls finding the Swede crying in a fancy restaurant’s bathroom stall following an otherwise pleasant family dinner about the alleged death of Merry (71). The failure in Merry is a sudden tragedy to the Swede. Of the Swede’s naivete, Jerry says, “Never in his life had occasion to ask himself, ‘Why are things the way they are?’ Why should he bother, when the way they were was always perfect?… The question to which there is no answer, and up till then he was so blessed he didn’t even know the question existed” (70). The Swede’s tragedy is important because it is the equivalent to the loss of his ability to pass, to be a real American. Jerry brings it one step further when he says, “That was [the Swede’s] fate – built for bearing burdens and taking shit” (70). Jerry is essentially breaking the image Zuckerman always held of the Swede. The Swede never really was perfect. He always had problems dealing with the expectations of others, and he never knew that life could be a different way until his only daughter became a murderer and an outlaw.

There is a difference between the two Levov brothers in their ability to take what life gives them and continue moving, or passing. According to Jerry, it is the Swede’s lack of rage, or reaction, that keeps him from letting go of the loss of his daughter, ultimately leading to his death. On the other hand, according to Zuckerman, Jerry has “a talent for rage and another… for not looking back” (72). This talent for not looking back demonstrates the need to hold only the loosest bonds to where one originated in order to be able to move forward. This means, among other things, to not grasp onto Judaism so much because it would impede on the possible successes ahead.

A perfect self-observation Zuckerman makes is that he must have been sitting “in Vincent’s restaurant, childishly expecting to be wowed by [the Swede’s] godliness, only to be confronted by an utterly ordinary humanness” (72). Zuckerman processes it himself that the Swede is no different from him. He was not god-like, he did not have all the answers and he certainly did not pretend to be the same childhood hometown sports legend that he used to be.

Another way we see the tragedy of the Swede is that he was “fatally attracted to his duty… fatally attracted to responsibility” (72). The use of the word “fatally” suggests that in being so loyal to his responsibilities, or the norm or familiar, the Swede caused his own death by not properly responding to the crimes and death of his daughter with flexibility. Apparently, for the rest of his life it was all he could do to “bury this thing,” that “one day life started laughing at him and it never let up” (74).

The one thing that no one trying to be successful or to pass can escape is the body. While speaking with an old romantic interest, Joy Helpern, at the high school reunion, Zuckerman marvels at the changes in her “body, from which one cannot strip oneself however one tries, from which one is not to be freed this side of death” (79). That is to say, no one can escape the confines of his or her own body no matter how much he or she wants it. It will always be there, this relic of one’s heritage, one’s journey. This is important because it shows the desperation of Zuckerman’s peers who want to assimilate to such a degree that even their own bodies are a problem – they betray who they really are.

Zuckerman comes to his own conclusion about the post-Merry’s bombing life of the Swede: “Stoically he suppresses his honor. He learns to live behind a mask. A lifetime experiment in endurance. A performance over a ruin. Swede Levov lives a double life” (81). Furthermore, Zuckerman deduces that “[the Swede] had learned the worst lesson that life can teach – that it makes no sense” (81). The loss of Merry is really what brings the Swede back down to earth and makes him god-like no longer in Zuckerman’s eyes. It is probably this very family tragedy to which the Swede was referring in his letter to Zuckerman, even though he never brought it up in person at their dinner. The haunting nature of the double life of the Swede plays itself in the notion that “the responsibility of the school hero follows him through life” (79). This school hero, this legend, was all a tangible dream for which the neighborhood was partly responsible.

The Swede’s problem with “making himself unnaturally responsible” is that he “keeps under control not just himself but whatever else threatens to be uncontrollable, giving his all to keep his world together” (88). The Swede must be so ingrained to the norm that he limits himself and causes hardship by not being more open. The Swede’s boyhood successes have influenced his constant desire to please by taking responsibility. These efforts bring him further and further from his Jewish religion. He is “an American not by sheer striving, not by being a Jew who invents a famous vaccine or a Jew on the Supreme Court, not be being the most brilliant or the most eminent or the best. Instead – by virtue of his isomorphism to the Wasp world – he does it the ordinary way, the natural way, the regular American guy way” (89). This presents the indelible problem: the shed one’s Judaism in order to become American and be accepted by all.

The reader finally gets a clue about what might have led to the Swede’s downfall when it is revealed that the Swede kissed his 11-year-old daughter on the mouth at her request. Zuckerman’s interpretation of this event and its impact is that “never in his entire life… had [the Swede] given way to anything so alien to the emotional rules by which he was governed, and later he wondered if this strange parental misstep was not the lapse from responsibility for which he paid for the rest of his life” (91). Why is there an emphasis on responsibility or the lack thereof? Why does the Swede follow an instinct to be responsible for everything around him, controllable or uncontrollable? Is this mistake really the only time that the Swede did not meet his self-imposed standards, the real reason for his downfall, his inability to pretend anymore?

Zuckerman shows us that the Swede so long crated fell apart after the realization that the Swede’s whole life changed after that illicit 10-second kiss (92). Putting himself in the Swede’s shoes, Zuckerman tells us, “All the triumphs, when [the Swede] probed them, seemed superficial; even more astonishing, his very virtues came to seem vices. There was no longer any innocence in what he remembered of his past” (93). The self-judgement leads the Swede to believe that his whole life has been a sham, that he has never truly passed for a stable, got-everything-together all-American man. The intention of the kiss is supposedly to relieve Merry of her tensions and make her feel comfortable, but it may have resulted in Merry’s unfortunate, obstinate stutter. Thus, the Swede concludes, “What you said and did made a difference, all right, but not the difference you intended” (93).

The Swede’s crestfallen attitude about the consequences of his actions influences him for the rest of his life. Relating his life to the handicap of his only daughter’s stutter, he “no longer had any conception of order. There was no order. None. He envisioned his life as a stutterer’s thought, wildly out of control” (93). This loss of control is synonymous with his loss of responsibility, his waning life force soon leading to his death.

There is more lack of practice of Judaism in reference to the Swede’s family. His teenage daughter takes Saturday trips to New York City to meet with other political radicals during the Vietnam War. Saturday is supposed to be Sabbath observed by all Jews, which includes not doing any work. Traveling to New York City constitutes as work, and we see that the Swede makes no mention about a possible disappointment in Merry’s failure to observe the Sabbath. Also, when Merry is younger, she sees speech therapists for her stutter on Saturdays. One surprising element of Judaism, though, is when the Swede is angered by Merry’s Catholic trinkets given to her by her Gentile grandparents. After it becomes clear that the trinkets are not going away, the Swede has a talk with Merry, explaining that Jews do not have crosses or pictures of Jesus Christ hanging in their rooms, and that these objects should be hidden when the Swede’s own parents come to visit (94).

Merry’s weekend trips to New York City are even more disrespectful of the laws of Judaism in that she neglects the laws of kashrut, or the eating restrictions. One of these restrictions is that meat and cheese should not be eaten in the same meal, and it seems Merry often enjoys cheeseburgers while in New York City (105). Merry has many arguments with her dad, the Swede, about her activities and whereabouts on these trips, and she astutely says to him during one such argument, “You think everything that is f-foreign to you is b-bad. Did you ever think that there are some things that are f-foreign to you that are good?” (110). Herein lies the problem with the Swede: he likes everything to be at a comfortable, controllable norm, and when things get too “extreme” he does not feel safe and secure.