Journal of Social Equity and Public Administration

Neoliberalism, NIL, and the Decline of Amateurism

2025-10-05T10:57:13-05:00

This article examines how name, image, and likeness (NIL) reforms illuminate and intensify the broader neoliberal transformation of higher education in the United States. While NIL is widely celebrated as expanding student-athlete rights, the article argues that it also functions as a Trojan horse, extending market logics that have long eroded higher education’s civic and equity-driven mission. Drawing on social equity theory, critical pedagogy, and public administration scholarship, the analysis shows how NIL both disrupts and reproduces structural inequities across race, gender, sport, and institutional resources. Although NIL challenges the historical exploitation embedded in the amateurism model, its benefits remain unequally distributed, particularly disadvantaging female athletes, non-revenue sports, and under-resourced institutions. The article concludes that NIL can serve as a lever for democratic renewal only if universities adopt equity-centered governance, redistributive policy frameworks, and holistic student development practices grounded in justice rather than market imperatives.

The Separation of Powers and the Presidential War Against Gender Ideology

2025-12-02T10:48:03-06:00

Immediately after starting his second term as president, Donald Trump declared war on so-called “gender ideology.” President Trump issued an executive order establishing national policy that there are two genders: male and female. The article examines the use of unitary executive branch theory by the second Trump administration to create moral panic by arguing that so-called gender ideology seeks to corrupt American youth by having them question their gender identity and the social equity movement. The social equity movement argues that the discipline of public administration should recognize social equity as a foundation, alongside efficiency, equity, and economy. The constitutional school of public administration argues that the discipline must recognize the rule of law as its foundation. Many social equity scholars trace the birth of the social equity movement to the 1968 Minnowbrook Conference. Social equity theory argues that public administrators must work to eliminate social inequities in the United States and around the globe. The constitutional school of public administration argues that all residents of the United States deserve protection against violations of their fundamental constitutional and statutory rights. The article argues that social equity and the constitutional school of public administration must join forces to prevent the second Trump administration from creating moral panic by perpetuating the myth of gender ideology.

Approaches to Equity in Public Budgeting and Finance: A Systematic Literature Review

2025-12-02T10:35:07-06:00

Through a systematic literature review approach, this paper identifies and reviews studies from major journals in Public Administration, Public Budgeting, and Public Finance over the past two decades to critically assess how the social equity concept has been integrated into public budgeting and finance research. Focusing on five themes—federal funding, contracting, education finance, nonprofit contributions and social impact bonds, and participatory budgeting, it aims to identify shared and differing perspectives on the definition and operationalization of equity in public budgeting and finance empirical studies. Furthermore, it seeks to articulate how the studies on each theme can be informed by the broader literature on social equity and by different theoretical traditions, thereby deepening and mutually reinforcing our understanding of equity in public budgeting and finance.

"The Only Thing They Haven’t Asked Me for Is a Blood Sample"

2026-02-15T11:01:58-06:00

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is America’s most important antihunger program, but program participation varies by state. Administrative burdens, or the onerous experiences of individuals applying for public services, disproportionately impact Black and Hispanic SNAP applicants, making administrative burdens an equity issue. These burdens are products of state actions that may be formal, informal, intentional, or unintentional. This study applies an administrative burden framework to a qualitative case study of Connecticut’s SNAP, exploring barriers to program use. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who were eligible but not using SNAP benefits (n = 15) and advocates/volunteers who assist with SNAP eligibility (n = 4) to explore barriers to SNAP participation. Results indicate that formal state actions are burdensome as they are inconsistent with low-income families’ lived experiences. Burdens that result from informal actions are largely dependent on the flexibility afforded by SNAP eligibility staff as they process these applications. A human rights approach to research and evaluation of human service programs, which demands that individuals eligible for social welfare programs participate in decision-making of policy implementation, can help shift this burden to the states and contribute to a more equitable approach to public service.

The Power of Collectivism: Racial Healing and Black Women’s Political Leadership

2025-12-09T10:23:49-06:00

This article presents an integrative literature review supported by illustrative survey data to examine how Black women’s political leadership development is shaped through grassroots political training programs. Drawing on public administration, Black feminist thought, and political science, the analysis explores how such programs cultivate leadership practices grounded in collectivism, community accountability, and care while operating within political systems structured by individualistic norms. Survey data from 88 participants are used illustratively to contextualize patterns in political ambition, candidacy consideration, and inspiration from other Black women leaders, rather than to test causal relationships. Taken together, the article advances a conceptual argument that collectivist leadership frameworks provide a lens for examining alternative approaches to leadership development and democratic practice in public administration, while underscoring the need for future empirical research to more explicitly examine governance outcomes associated with these approaches.

Wall of Whiteness: Bricks in the Ivory Tower

2025-11-19T16:04:38-06:00

Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 essay used the “invisible knapsack” metaphor to identify often-unrecognized advantages afforded to White Americans. While this list was instrumental in fostering self-reflection and empathy, its focus on individual-level experiences and a static understanding of race limited its scope for driving systemic change. This conceptual paper revisits McIntosh’s list of examples, illustrating that it is insufficient to merely identify them; we must actively dismantle the “wall of Whiteness” perpetuating racial inequality. Drawing upon contemporary scholarship that builds on process-centered understanding of race, we present a revised framework identifying both individual/interpersonal and institutional/structural factors that contribute to this wall, particularly within academia. Based on this understanding, we advocate for a shift from a sole focus on critical selfreflection to a commitment to institutional and systemic changes, providing academics with the tools to recognize and dismantle these barriers, thereby creating a more equitable and inclusive academy.

Power, Policy, and the People:

2025-10-04T20:58:48-05:00

This article explores the emergence of a transformative higher education model—The Community Practitioner Certification Program (CPCP)—which places credible messengers, system-impacted leaders, and grassroots organizers at the center of public policy education, unique in its merging of lived experience with academic scholarship to redefine who holds expertise and how learning is delivered. What began as an experimental course in one university evolved into a multicity national initiative housed under the Institute for Research for Social Justice in Action (IRSJA) with programming now operating in several urban locations. This article traces the origin story of CPCP, the collaborative design of its curriculum, and its impact in reshaping the relationship between communities and institutions of higher learning. With a focus on healing, power-building, and liberation through education, this work offers a new blueprint for what higher education can become when the people are positioned as professors.

Revisiting the Responsibility of Care: Lessons from South Los Angeles

2026-02-03T14:01:25-06:00

This article advances a framework of care for public administration as a foundation for promoting social justice and strengthening democratic governance. Drawing on 10 years of community-based research in Los Angeles, the analysis examines how care is enacted in contexts shaped by public sector retrenchment. Across multiple projects spanning affordable housing, sustainable employment, quality childcare, and community-led cultural development, care emerged as a consistent analytic theme and was subsequently examined to distill lessons for public administrators. The findings show that care is practiced through efforts that sustain material well-being, uphold dignity, and facilitate collective agency. Rather than treating care as an informal or supplementary activity, the article demonstrates how community organizations and residents enact care as a form of governance—often compensating for gaps in public systems—while also revealing both the limits of relying on community-based care alone and the opportunities for public institutions to engage care more deliberately.

Managing Gender Inequity in Academia: A Guide for Faculty and Administrators in Public Affairs Programs

2026-03-25T22:58:58-05:00

Book Review

Rainbow Trap: Queer Lives, Classifications, and the Dangers of Inclusion

2026-04-23T14:15:09-05:00

Book Review

Human Targets: Schools, Police, and the Criminalization of Latino Youth

2026-05-18T00:00:12-05:00

Book Review

JSEPA Best Article Awards

2026-06-07T09:30:23-05:00

JSEPA is thrilled to announce the inaugural round of best article selections for 2023, 2024, and 2025.