Stitching Tattered Cloth: Reflections on Social Justice and Qualitative Inquiry in Troubled Times

Abstract

This article is a transcript of a keynote performance delivered at the opening of the 14th Annual International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI). I compare the troubled times we face during the first year of President Donald J. Trump’s administration in 2017 with conditions existing during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Similarities include mass migration, religious intolerance, nativist and anti-immigrant movements, racial injustice, political division, acute income inequality, and debates over the role of science and religion. Finding inspiration in the work of social reformer Charles Loring Brace (1826-1890), I examine his efforts in founding the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) of New York in 1853. Guided by a moral compass and radical new view of social justice work, Brace used qualitative methodological approaches and melded disciplinary knowledge to devise a comprehensive intervention strategy to alleviate child suffering. His goals were nothing short of eradicating poverty and homelessness, decreasing crime and delinquency, reducing illiteracy, reducing unemployment, and improving child and maternal health outcomes. For nearly four decades Brace worked to establish a multi-service child welfare agency that continues to exist 165 years later. He contributed to creating a new profession of applied philanthropy or social work. I compare these efforts with the building of ICQI. Norman K. Denzin, ICQI’s founder, possesses the same kind of visionary leadership, commitment to social justice, and ‘dangerous’ ideas as demonstrated by Brace. I suggest ICQI grew from a similar set of building blocks and possesses the same transformative power as CAS demonstrated in troubled times.