K Fong
Biographic Data
| ID | 37353 |
|---|---|
| NAME | K Fong |
| GIVEN NAMES | K |
| FAMILY NAME | Fong |
| SIGNATURE | FONG K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9662-6347 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 210 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Handing Off: Frontline Redistribution of Work
In the governance of poverty and marginality, a complex array of frontline workers manages social suffering. Enabled and constrained by vertical and horizontal relations of production, these workers frequently redistribute work across organizational boundaries. Recent scholarship often reduces such redistribution to a single dynamic: “burden shuffling.” This study extends and complicates that framework. Drawing on three case studies—ambulance cre…
Child Protective Services as Gateway and Gatekeeper in the New Welfare State
Research demonstrates that providing material aid to families can prevent child maltreatment and involvement with the child welfare system. In this context, momentum is growing for child welfare agencies to supplement a limited safety net by providing resources themselves. Drawing on qualitative research in two case study sites, Connecticut and New York City, this article examines whether and how child welfare agencies seek to address families’ m…
Children’s Pathways of Exposure to Child Protective Services Over the Life Course and by Race/Ethnicity
Child Welfare System Contact and Voting
When the house finds you: "Unanticipated Opportunities in the Housing "Search
Prior research on residential selection generally assumes households find housing by actively searching for it. This assumption has led scholars to focus on factors that enable or constrain such searches. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a race- and class-diverse sample of 141 households in two metropolitan areas, we find that for many movers, residential attainment does not result from a housing search at all. Instead, households move into ho…
I Know How It Feels: Empathy and Reluctance to Mobilize Legal Authorities
Why do people hesitate to summon state authorities to address concerns? Previous research has focused on cultural orientations about law enforcement, such as legal cynicism. In addition, people are often in a position to turn others in, requiring attention to how potential reporters understand the meaning and consequences of implicating others. This article identifies empathy as an underexamined lens through which marginalized groups view state i…
Administrative Burdens in Child Welfare Systems
Public policy often imposes administrative burdens that constrain people’s ability to access benefits and affirmatively exercise fundamental rights. In this article, we extend the administrative burden framework to argue that the state also places burdens on people who have involuntary contact with coercive state institutions, such as the child welfare system. Just as administrative burdens lock “undeserving,” marginalized populations out of bene…
Political Underrepresentation Among Public Benefits Recipients: Evidence from Linked Administrative Data
People receiving government assistance have personal stakes in the political process and intimate knowledge of policy implementation. However, data limitations have made it hard to measure voting among those receiving assistance across various programs. Using linked administrative data from a large county in Pennsylvania, merged with the Pennsylvania voter file, we calculate voting rates among benefits recipients. We find that people receiving me…
Evictions and Neighborhood Child Maltreatment Reports
Each year, nearly 2.5 million evictions are filed in the United States. Recent research links evictions to a host of negative outcomes, but effects on child well-being are less studied, even as evictions are disproportionately experienced by families with children. In this article, we investigate the relationship between evictions and reports of child abuse and neglect, a key indicator of child well-being. Drawing on 5 years of block-group-level …
Proximity to SNAP-authorized retailers and child maltreatment reports
Forever Homes and Temporary Stops: Housing Search Logics and Residential Selection
Residential selection is central in determining children’s housing, neighborhood, and school contexts, and an extensive literature considers the social processes that shape residential searches and attainment. While this literature typically frames the residential search as a uniform process oriented around finding residential options with desired characteristics, we examine whether individuals may differentially conceive of these searches in way…
Getting Eyes in the Home: Child Protective Services Investigations and State Surveillance of Family Life
Each year, U.S. child protection authorities investigate millions of families, disproportionately poor families and families of color. These investigations involve multiple home visits to collect information across numerous personal domains. How does the state gain such widespread entrée into the intimate, domestic lives of marginalized families? Predominant theories of surveillance offer little insight into this process and its implications. Ana…
Concealment and Constraint: Child Protective Services Fears and Poor Mothers’ Institutional Engagement
With the expansion of state surveillance and enforcement efforts in recent decades, a growing literature examines how those vulnerable to punitive state contact strategize to evade it. This article draws on in-depth interviews with eighty-three low-income mothers to consider whether and how concerns about Child Protective Services (CPS), a widespread presence in poor communities with the power to remove children from their parents, inform poor mo…
Because the World Consists of Everybody”: Understanding Parents’ Preferences for Neighborhood Diversity
Previous research, primarily using survey data, highlights preferences about neighborhood racial composition as a potential contributor to residential segregation. However, we know little about how individuals, especially parents, understand neighborhood racial composition. We examine this question using in–depth interview data from a racially diverse sample of 156 parents of young children in two metropolitan areas. Prior scholarship on neighbor…
Subject to Evaluation: How Parents Assess and Mobilize Information from Social Networks in School Choice
A rich literature examines how information spreads through social networks to influence life opportunities. However, receiving information does not guarantee its use in decision making. This article analyzes information evaluation as a fundamental component of social network mobilization. The case of school choice, where the value of information may be more uncertain, brings this evaluative dimension to the forefront. Interviews with 55 parents i…
Timing Is Everything: Late Registration and Stratified Access to School Choice
School choice policies necessarily impose registration timelines, constraining access to schools of choice for students who register late. Drawing on administrative data, survey data, and interviews with 33 parents in Boston, we find that late registration is common and highly stratified: Nearly half of black kindergarteners miss the first registration deadline, a rate almost three times higher than their white peers, consigning them to the least…
Child welfare involvement and contexts of poverty: The role of parental adversities, social networks, and social services
The Cost of Free Assistance: Why Low-Income Individuals Do Not Access Food Pantries
Non-governmental free food assistance is available to many lowincome Americans through food pantries. However, most do not use this assistance, even though it can be worth over $2,000 per year. Survey research suggests concrete barriers, such as lack of information, account for non-use. In contrast, qualitative studies focus on the role of cultural factors, such as stigma. Drawing on interviews with 53 low-income individuals in San Francisco who …
Getting Eyes in the Home: Child Protective Services Investigations and State Surveillance of Family Life
Each year, U.S. child protection authorities investigate millions of families, disproportionately poor families and families of color. These investigations involve multiple home visits to collect information across numerous personal domains. How does the state gain such widespread entrée into the intimate, domestic lives of marginalized families? Predominant theories of surveillance offer little insight into this process and its implications. Ana…
Child welfare involvement and contexts of poverty: The role of parental adversities, social networks, and social services
Subject to Evaluation: How Parents Assess and Mobilize Information from Social Networks in School Choice
A rich literature examines how information spreads through social networks to influence life opportunities. However, receiving information does not guarantee its use in decision making. This article analyzes information evaluation as a fundamental component of social network mobilization. The case of school choice, where the value of information may be more uncertain, brings this evaluative dimension to the forefront. Interviews with 55 parents i…
Timing Is Everything: Late Registration and Stratified Access to School Choice
School choice policies necessarily impose registration timelines, constraining access to schools of choice for students who register late. Drawing on administrative data, survey data, and interviews with 33 parents in Boston, we find that late registration is common and highly stratified: Nearly half of black kindergarteners miss the first registration deadline, a rate almost three times higher than their white peers, consigning them to the least…
Because the World Consists of Everybody”: Understanding Parents’ Preferences for Neighborhood Diversity
Previous research, primarily using survey data, highlights preferences about neighborhood racial composition as a potential contributor to residential segregation. However, we know little about how individuals, especially parents, understand neighborhood racial composition. We examine this question using in–depth interview data from a racially diverse sample of 156 parents of young children in two metropolitan areas. Prior scholarship on neighbor…
Administrative Burdens in Child Welfare Systems
Public policy often imposes administrative burdens that constrain people’s ability to access benefits and affirmatively exercise fundamental rights. In this article, we extend the administrative burden framework to argue that the state also places burdens on people who have involuntary contact with coercive state institutions, such as the child welfare system. Just as administrative burdens lock “undeserving,” marginalized populations out of bene…
The Cost of Free Assistance: Why Low-Income Individuals Do Not Access Food Pantries
Non-governmental free food assistance is available to many lowincome Americans through food pantries. However, most do not use this assistance, even though it can be worth over $2,000 per year. Survey research suggests concrete barriers, such as lack of information, account for non-use. In contrast, qualitative studies focus on the role of cultural factors, such as stigma. Drawing on interviews with 53 low-income individuals in San Francisco who …
I Know How It Feels: Empathy and Reluctance to Mobilize Legal Authorities
Why do people hesitate to summon state authorities to address concerns? Previous research has focused on cultural orientations about law enforcement, such as legal cynicism. In addition, people are often in a position to turn others in, requiring attention to how potential reporters understand the meaning and consequences of implicating others. This article identifies empathy as an underexamined lens through which marginalized groups view state i…
Children’s Pathways of Exposure to Child Protective Services Over the Life Course and by Race/Ethnicity
Child Welfare System Contact and Voting
Political Underrepresentation Among Public Benefits Recipients: Evidence from Linked Administrative Data
People receiving government assistance have personal stakes in the political process and intimate knowledge of policy implementation. However, data limitations have made it hard to measure voting among those receiving assistance across various programs. Using linked administrative data from a large county in Pennsylvania, merged with the Pennsylvania voter file, we calculate voting rates among benefits recipients. We find that people receiving me…
The Cost of Free Assistance: Why Low-Income Individuals Do Not Access Food Pantries
Non-governmental free food assistance is available to many lowincome Americans through food pantries. However, most do not use this assistance, even though it can be worth over $2,000 per year. Survey research suggests concrete barriers, such as lack of information, account for non-use. In contrast, qualitative studies focus on the role of cultural factors, such as stigma. Drawing on interviews with 53 low-income individuals in San Francisco who …
Child welfare involvement and contexts of poverty: The role of parental adversities, social networks, and social services
Subject to Evaluation: How Parents Assess and Mobilize Information from Social Networks in School Choice
A rich literature examines how information spreads through social networks to influence life opportunities. However, receiving information does not guarantee its use in decision making. This article analyzes information evaluation as a fundamental component of social network mobilization. The case of school choice, where the value of information may be more uncertain, brings this evaluative dimension to the forefront. Interviews with 55 parents i…
Timing Is Everything: Late Registration and Stratified Access to School Choice
School choice policies necessarily impose registration timelines, constraining access to schools of choice for students who register late. Drawing on administrative data, survey data, and interviews with 33 parents in Boston, we find that late registration is common and highly stratified: Nearly half of black kindergarteners miss the first registration deadline, a rate almost three times higher than their white peers, consigning them to the least…
Concealment and Constraint: Child Protective Services Fears and Poor Mothers’ Institutional Engagement
With the expansion of state surveillance and enforcement efforts in recent decades, a growing literature examines how those vulnerable to punitive state contact strategize to evade it. This article draws on in-depth interviews with eighty-three low-income mothers to consider whether and how concerns about Child Protective Services (CPS), a widespread presence in poor communities with the power to remove children from their parents, inform poor mo…
Because the World Consists of Everybody”: Understanding Parents’ Preferences for Neighborhood Diversity
Previous research, primarily using survey data, highlights preferences about neighborhood racial composition as a potential contributor to residential segregation. However, we know little about how individuals, especially parents, understand neighborhood racial composition. We examine this question using in–depth interview data from a racially diverse sample of 156 parents of young children in two metropolitan areas. Prior scholarship on neighbor…
Forever Homes and Temporary Stops: Housing Search Logics and Residential Selection
Residential selection is central in determining children’s housing, neighborhood, and school contexts, and an extensive literature considers the social processes that shape residential searches and attainment. While this literature typically frames the residential search as a uniform process oriented around finding residential options with desired characteristics, we examine whether individuals may differentially conceive of these searches in way…
Getting Eyes in the Home: Child Protective Services Investigations and State Surveillance of Family Life
Each year, U.S. child protection authorities investigate millions of families, disproportionately poor families and families of color. These investigations involve multiple home visits to collect information across numerous personal domains. How does the state gain such widespread entrée into the intimate, domestic lives of marginalized families? Predominant theories of surveillance offer little insight into this process and its implications. Ana…
Evictions and Neighborhood Child Maltreatment Reports
Each year, nearly 2.5 million evictions are filed in the United States. Recent research links evictions to a host of negative outcomes, but effects on child well-being are less studied, even as evictions are disproportionately experienced by families with children. In this article, we investigate the relationship between evictions and reports of child abuse and neglect, a key indicator of child well-being. Drawing on 5 years of block-group-level …
Proximity to SNAP-authorized retailers and child maltreatment reports
Administrative Burdens in Child Welfare Systems
Public policy often imposes administrative burdens that constrain people’s ability to access benefits and affirmatively exercise fundamental rights. In this article, we extend the administrative burden framework to argue that the state also places burdens on people who have involuntary contact with coercive state institutions, such as the child welfare system. Just as administrative burdens lock “undeserving,” marginalized populations out of bene…
Political Underrepresentation Among Public Benefits Recipients: Evidence from Linked Administrative Data
People receiving government assistance have personal stakes in the political process and intimate knowledge of policy implementation. However, data limitations have made it hard to measure voting among those receiving assistance across various programs. Using linked administrative data from a large county in Pennsylvania, merged with the Pennsylvania voter file, we calculate voting rates among benefits recipients. We find that people receiving me…
I Know How It Feels: Empathy and Reluctance to Mobilize Legal Authorities
Why do people hesitate to summon state authorities to address concerns? Previous research has focused on cultural orientations about law enforcement, such as legal cynicism. In addition, people are often in a position to turn others in, requiring attention to how potential reporters understand the meaning and consequences of implicating others. This article identifies empathy as an underexamined lens through which marginalized groups view state i…
Children’s Pathways of Exposure to Child Protective Services Over the Life Course and by Race/Ethnicity
Child Welfare System Contact and Voting
When the house finds you: "Unanticipated Opportunities in the Housing "Search
Prior research on residential selection generally assumes households find housing by actively searching for it. This assumption has led scholars to focus on factors that enable or constrain such searches. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a race- and class-diverse sample of 141 households in two metropolitan areas, we find that for many movers, residential attainment does not result from a housing search at all. Instead, households move into ho…
Handing Off: Frontline Redistribution of Work
In the governance of poverty and marginality, a complex array of frontline workers manages social suffering. Enabled and constrained by vertical and horizontal relations of production, these workers frequently redistribute work across organizational boundaries. Recent scholarship often reduces such redistribution to a single dynamic: “burden shuffling.” This study extends and complicates that framework. Drawing on three case studies—ambulance cre…
Child Protective Services as Gateway and Gatekeeper in the New Welfare State
Research demonstrates that providing material aid to families can prevent child maltreatment and involvement with the child welfare system. In this context, momentum is growing for child welfare agencies to supplement a limited safety net by providing resources themselves. Drawing on qualitative research in two case study sites, Connecticut and New York City, this article examines whether and how child welfare agencies seek to address families’ m…
Political science (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Child Abuse and Trauma (9 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Medicine (6 works)