Book excerpt: Based on field work in Michigan in 1989 and 1990, explores how street-level welfare workers and welfare recipients actively construct their world and its meanings in relation to the social and cultural constraints to which they are subject. The point is to clarify the conditions that encourage the recognition of commonality and those that encourage difference, in order to find ways of promoting a sense of co-membership in the system. Paper edition (unseen), $17.50. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR