Book excerpt: For the past decade political scientist Sanford Schram has led the academic effort to understand the ways Americans and their political officials talk about welfare. In this important new work, Schram argues that it is time to take stock of the new forms of welfare and to develop new methods to better understand them. While still asserting the importance of understanding discourse, he is now pushing for a more contextual approach to understanding everything from the use of the idea of globalization to justify cutbacks in welfare and the increasing movement of U.S. policy discourse overseas to the development of assets-based approaches to helping the poor. Stressing the importance of understanding the ways we talk about welfare, the ways it is studied, and increased attention to what is not being discussed and why, Welfare Discipline ends with Schram's ideas for making welfare policy just and effective.