Perspectives on Racism And The Human Services Sector Discussion

, ,

Perspectives on Racism And The Human Services Sector Discussion

Readings

Paul Slack, “The Common Weal,” Chapter 1, in From Reformation to Improvement: Public Welfare in Early Modern England, pp. 1–28

Ben Carniol, “Roots: Early Attitudes,” Chapter 2 (first section) in Case Critical: Social Services and Social Justice in Canada (5th ed.), pp. 35–42

Parks Canada, “Workers Prior to 1850” (Page 1)

Joanne Turner, “The Historical Base,” Chapter 5, in Canadian Social Welfare, pp. 51–59

Dennis Guest, “The Colonial Inheritance,” Chapter 2, in The Emergence of Social Security in Canada pp. 11–19

Keith D. Smith, “The Liberal Surveillance Complex,” Chapter 1, in Liberalism, Surveillance and Resistance: Indigenous Communities in Western Canada, 1877–1927, pp. 1–27

James, C. E., (Ed.). (1996). Perspectives on racism and the human services sector: A case for change. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

Yates, J. V. N. (1824). Report of the Secretary of State in 1824 on the relief and settlement of the poor. New York: Secretary of State, New York. Perspectives on Racism And The Human Services Sector Discussion

ORDER HERE A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER 

Key Terms and Concepts

 

Elizabethan Poor Law. Although English poor law began with the initiatives of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558–1603, codified the rules, regulations, and procedures that had been enacted up until 1601.

Codify. Even though parliament had only been in existence for three hundred years, governments already practiced the classification and arrangement of rules and laws into systematic collections, known as codes, by 1601. In this way, the clerks, sheriffs, and local parish authorities could read the directions of the government on how to set up the local parish organization to deal with the poor, who was to do what (and how to do it), as well as how people in different circumstances should be classified and dealt with in each case.

Relief. Measures to be taken for the relief of the dependant poor. These measures ranged from short-term assistance to providing food to housing and total care. In early England, relief was financed and administered by the most local unit of government, the parish. Parish authorities were responsible to the central government, which issued the code of standards that guided the local functionaries.

Welfare State. Dennis Guest (1997) explains the historical significance of the Poor Law and its influence on future developments this way: “In affirming a public, tax-supported system for the relief of destitution, the march toward the welfare state had begun” (p. 12). Since 1601, England and the colonies have used state policy to provide services and supports in good times and bad according to the sentiments of the powerful forces of opinion of the day. In sum, those aspects of state governance that use public resources grounded in human services policy to address the needs of disadvantaged people are often referred to as the welfare state. Perspectives on Racism And The Human Services Sector Discussion

STUDY GUIDE

Unit 4 Elizabethan Poor Law and the Colonies

Study Questions

  1. Characterize the main features of living conditions in recently industrialized cities in North America in the late nineteenth century.
  2. What ideological approach to human service provision did the Charity Organisation Societies adopt first in Britain and then in the US and Canada, and why?
  3. Evaluate the strengths and drawbacks of the settlement movement as developed by the progressives?

 

STUDY GUIDE

Unit 4 Elizabethan Poor Law and the Colonies

Overview

In Units 4 and 5, in order to trace the development of current policy, the ideas that shape the possibilities of human services policy through history are explored. The impact of those ideas is analyzed in the earliest stages of European colonization in Canada and the United States.

Prior to the reign of King Henry VIII (1509–1547), policy was not clearly and systematically articulated in England. The King’s court had a clerical function and rudimentary records were kept. Proclamations were hand-printed and the first legislative assembly depended on clerks of the King’s court to keep records. These people had great responsibilities because a small staff of government lawyers and bureaucrats carried out the wishes of the king and members of Parliament. England’s history of democratic law-making initially took shape with the signing of the Magna Carta (Great Charter) in 1215. Aristocrats forced unpopular King John to recognize that the rule of law would prevail over royal decree. In 1295, a legislative assembly, the first parliament, was created. Made up of the aristocratic families of England, the legislature began to establish laws and supported them through enforcement. Some written records were kept, but social arrangements remained unstable for several centuries as improvements gradually emerged. Very few people were literate apart from church clerics and court clerks. Commoners in need of assistance had few ways to obtain support. Crime, charity, and begging were the best that most people could do to help themselves. Perspectives on Racism And The Human Services Sector Discussion

The expectation, in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England, was that family and the church would see to the needs of the sick, the mentally ill, the aged, and the destitute. When the plague decimated the population, the only legislation to remediate its effects introduced restrictions on mobility as if that measure alone could curb transmission of the disease. Severe penalties awaited vagrants and charity was the sole policy instrument that responded to the needs of the poor. You will notice in the next unit that libertarian notions of governance follow the precedent of having the poor provide for themselves.

King Henry VIII, and later his daughter, Elizabeth I introduced legislation that included minimum standards for the care of destitute people in local parishes. This early initiative suggests a centrist-liberal commitment for the use of tax-based resources to address the needs of the poor. In later units we will discuss how progressive policy initiatives evolved over time into policies that emphasized equality.

 

Learning Objectives

When you have completed Units 4 you will be able to

  1. discuss the factors that shaped the creation of the first poor laws in England.
  2. summarize and critique early European social programs, particularly ones that were imported to the New World.
  3. analyze the impact of the ideas of Adam Smith and the libertarians on early colonial responses to the needs of impoverished people.
  4. compare the colonial approaches of Canada and the United States toward Aboriginal peoples.
  5. STUDY GUIDE
  6. Unit 5Industrialization and Social Policy Perspectives on Racism And The Human Services Sector Discussion

7.                       Overview

  1. In the colonial periods of Canada and the United States, land policies shunted the original inhabitants aside and attempted to build a new nation based on individualism. Individualism assumed that all citizens had the opportunity to own land and be economically self-sufficient. The serious business of clearing the land and making it productive occupied the settlers, many of whom were quite isolated in the early years.
  2. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, trade and industrialization were fast replacing the agricultural ethic of many of the North American colonies. Cities and towns were established beside rivers that could drive the turbines and mills of factories. Canals were built to transport people, materials, and products. This activity foreshadowed the geographic disbursement of future trade and manufacturing that benefited from the invention of electricity and motorized vehicles to transfer goods by railroad and highway later in the century.
  3. All of these innovations required a great influx of people to run the new machines and build networks of roads, canals, and rails. Most of these immigrants were labourers from China, Ireland, and other nations. Their labour built the cities and towns. Urbanization placed additional demands on the poor laws and almshouses. Charitable organizations were quickly overwhelmed by the massive problems in city slums, even though churches and ethnic, mutual-support societies did what they could to meet new needs. In 1873, there was a crippling recession in the fledgling industrial economy, with high unemployment, hunger in the cities, and inadequate relief measures.
  4. This time there were two fundamentally different responses: both contributed to the founding of human services. One was conservative, and involved the co-ordination of resources and the teaching of moral improvement. The other was liberal-progressive and attempted to give people the capacities for self-help and mutual aid through schooling and advocacy. Perspectives on Racism And The Human Services Sector Discussion

Reference

  1. Michael Katz, “The Poorhouse Era,” in Improving Poor People: The Welfare State, the “Underclass,” and Urban Schools in History, pp. 31–59
  2. Alan Kidd, “Charity Organisation Society” Chapter 3 in State, Society, & the Poor in Nineteenth-century England, 97–107
  3. Stears, M., (2002). Progressives, pluralists, and the problems of the state: Ideologies of reform in the United States and Britain, 1909–1926. New York:Oxford University
  4. Michael Katz, “Surviving Poverty—Three New York Stories,” in Improving Poor People: The Welfare State, the “Underclass,” and Urban Schools in History, pp. 157–172
  5. Ben Carniol, “Roots: Early Attitudes—Social Work: The Beginnings,” Chapter 2 in Case Critical: Social Services and Social Justice in Canada(5th ed.), pp. 42–52
  6. George, V., & Wilding, P. (1976). Ideology and social welfare. New York: Routledge. Perspectives on Racism And The Human Services Sector Discussion

 

  1. Parks Canada, “The Rise of Factories, 1850–1895,” p. 2; “Monopoly Capitalism, Unions, and Social Reform, 1896–1939,” p. 3; and “Workers and the State” (Including Government, Courts, Military, and the Police, p. 7 )

 

  1. Dennis Guest, “The 1920s: No priorities for welfare,” Chapter 6, in The Emergence of Social Security in Canada, pp. 65–82

Rodgers, D. T. (1998). Atlantic crossings: Social politics in a progressive age. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

 

Wilensky, H. L., & Lebeaux, C. N. (1965). The industrial revolution: Traditional indictment and defense. In Industrial society and social welfare (pp. 27–32). New York: Free Press.

ORDER NOW

Key concepts

  1. The sense of beneficence to neighbours, giving to the needy, often with reference to the Bible. Giving to charity from one’s private resources is considered worthy of praise. The voluntary nature of donating to charity contrasts sharply to tax–based or state welfare. The apparent praiseworthiness of charity (from the giver’s point of view) is tempered by our knowledge of the experiences of those who, as recipients, deal regularly with charitable institutions. Williams (1976) refers to the feelings of wounded pride and self–respect, of being “one–down” in the charitable relationship (p. 55). Charity is often seen, not as neighbourly love but as a reward for approved social conduct. Therefore, the idea of the deserving poor is at once benevolent, paradoxical, and demeaning. For example, you can have enough sustenance to help you survive, but you must also want to work but be unable to do so. This approach to human services provision is sometimes referred to as “the charity model of welfare.”
  2. Originally a term that indicated happiness and a sense of prosperity. In the twentieth century, welfare took on some of the pejorative senses of charity. Welfare policy surfaced in 1905, well before the term “welfare state” was coined in 1939. Welfare now generally refers to institutions and their programs, funded by the state, which aim to address some of the needs of the underprivileged.
  • Based on the fundamentally collective idea that many will pool their resources to cover the loss of any fellow members of the society or association who participate and are deemed eligible under the terms of a policy or contract. In recent times, insurance has become more corporate-driven by profit as its primary purpose, rather than mutual support. Governments adapted insurance-like approaches in dealing with human services policy issues beginning in the late nineteenth century. The state and participants in welfare programs paid contributions to private corporations to provide benefits for unemployed and injured workers, for example. This system created arms-length relationships for state support in areas of emerging need. Insured workers were policyholders who had the dignity of rights as premium-contributing participants, rather than having to subject themselves to charity or welfare for the underprivileged.

Study questions

  1. Describe the assessment criteria used by “Friendly Visitors” of the Charity Organization Societies when they dropped in on their clients.
  2. Explain how the settlement workers assessed needs in the community by living and working alongside local residents.
  3. Outline the effects industrialization had on state policy and its challenge to private charity in the early twentieth century. Perspectives on Racism And The Human Services Sector Discussion