Dr. Nicole Kaufman
Dr. Nicole Kaufman authored “Governing Through Partnerships: Neoconservative Governance and State Reliance on Religious NGOs in Drug Policy” in the journal Critical Criminology.
Kaufman is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Ohio University.
Abstract: This article examines states’ pursuit of partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as a strategy of governance in drug policy. State actors have used partnerships with religious NGOs to provide treatment services and disseminate messages about prevention. I investigate the emergence of such partnerships, drawing attention to neoconservatism as a political rationality associated with the rise of the New Right. I analyze officials’ justifications and strategies for including religious NGOs in such partnerships, using archival data on drug policies in Ohio and beginning with the formation of the statewide addiction services agency in 1989. The results demonstrate how officials have increasingly recognized the characteristics of the religious community by emphasizing their social service delivery and by framing religious leaders as health educators. Given the results, I consider the impacts of partnerships for the autonomy of organizations, the oversight of care, and the generation of images of an engaged community.
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