SOWO 804 Community Practice Models/Theories and Social CapitalCommunity Practice Models/TheoriesCommunity Practice Models/TheoriesPoverty and CommunityWelfare Reform PolicyWhen Affirmative Action Was “White”Changing Context of Community PracticeSocial CapitalWhat is social capitalStrengths-BasedRelationshipsSocial Capital Has Three Basic FunctionsSocial Capital As A Source of ControlSocial Capital: A Source of Family SupportFamilial SupportFamilial supportSocial Capital As A Source of Benefits Through Extra-familial NetworksExtrafamilial networksThe Communitarian PerspectiveThe Communitarian Perspective (cont’d)The Network PerspectiveInstitutional PerspectiveThe Synergy PerspectiveSlide 24The Synergy View Suggests Three Central TasksSOWO 804Community Practice Models/Theories and Social Capital Lecture VCommunity Practice Models/TheoriesSocial WorkMinistering to the individual needs (health, family development, recreation, aid for indigent, aged, etc.)Ministering to community (??)Community DevelopmentPlanned action to address people’s concerns in a defined areaCommunity Practice Models/TheoriesWho Defines CommunityInternal LeadersExternal LeadersCommunity Social Work PracticeSkillsCultural AwarenessNeeds AssessmentApplying Social Work Theories to PracticePoverty and CommunityPoverty Results From a “Deficit” in:Income?Mainstream Values?Persistent PovertyConcentrated PovertyThe “Underclass”Welfare Reform PolicyTemporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), 1988Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (1996)Faith-Based Remedies to PovertyWhen Affirmative Action Was “White”U. S. Government Allocated more than $100 billion between the late 1930s-1955 to SupportSOCIAL SECURTIY most work done by minorities—farm and domestic work-- not coveredPROTECTIVE LABOR LAWS excluded minoritiesJOB TRAINING excluded minoritiesHOME OWNERSHIP loans rarely given to minoritiesGI BILL JOB CEILINGSAsset Building: Saving, Investing, Education?Will asset-building work for the poor?Changing Context of Community PracticeHistorical modelsMulticultural ContextFeminist and Human Rights Context21st Century Practice ModelsNeighborhood/ Community OrganizingFunctional Communities: Organizing the Poor?Social and Economic DevelopmentSocial Planning for the PoorProgram Development and Community LiaisonPolitics and Social ActionCoalitions, Social MovementsSocial CapitalWhat is social capitalSocial capital is decomposable into two elements:The social relationship itself that allows individuals to claim access to resources possessed by their associatesThe amount and quality of those resources Bourdieu (1980, 1985)Strengths-BasedSocial capital focuses attention on the positive consequences of sociability.It emphasizes those positive consequences in the framework of a broader discussion of capital and calls attention to how such non-monetary forms can be important sources of power and influence, such as cultural capital and informal supports.RelationshipsEconomic capital is in people’s bank accounts, human capital is in their heads, and social capital exists in the structure of relationships To possess social capital, a person must be related to others, and it is those others and not himself/herself who are the actual sourceSocial Capital Has Three Basic FunctionsAs a source of controlAs a source of family supportAs a source of benefit through extra-familial networksSocial Capital As A Source of ControlParents, teachers, police to seek to maintain discipline and promote compliance among those under their chargeBounded in solidarity and enforceable trustSocial control leads to the disappearance of those informal family and community structures that produce social capitalSocial Capital: A Source of Family SupportSources of parental and kin supportIntact families, and those where one parent has the primary task of rearing children, possess more of this form of social capital than do single-parent families, or those where both parents work? McLanahan & Sandefur’s (1994) monograph, Growing up with a Single Parent, examines the consequences of single parenthood for school achievement and attrition, teenage pregnancy, and other adolescent outcomes Social capital is often lower for children in single parent families that lack the benefit of a second at-home “parent,” and have high residential mobility--- leading to fewer “ties” to adults in the communityFamilial SupportParcel & Menaghan (1994) examined the effects of parent work on children’s cognitive and social developmentThey concluded that parents’ intellectual and other resources contribute to the forms of family capital useful in facilitating positive outcomes for childrenThey also found that common beliefs about a negative effect of maternal work during infancy are over-generalizedFamilial supportMultiple family moves impacts children’s emotional adjustment and educational achievement?Leaving a community tends to destroy established bonds and deprive family and children of major sources of social capital? Parental support of child development is a source of cultural capitalSocial Capital As A Source of Benefits Through Extra-familial Networks Carol Stack (1974), All Our Kin, explains everyday survival in poor urban communities frequently depends on close interaction with kin and friends in similar situationsThe problem is that these ties seldom reach beyond the inner city, thus depriving their inhabitants of sources of information about employment opportunities and ways to attain themMovement out of Black inner city areas have left the remaining population bereft of social capital, leading to high levels of poverty, unemployment, and welfare dependencyExtrafamilial networksValenzuela & Dornbush (1994) highlight the role of family networks and a family orientation in the academic achievement of Mexican-origin studentsImmigrant families compensate for the absence of the “outside networks” form of social capitalThere is an emphasis on social capital in the form of familial support, including preservation of the cultural orientations of their home countryThe Communitarian Perspective The communitarian view of social capital emphasizes the number and density of local organizations (e.g., clubs, associations, etc.)