Social Capital and Welfare Reform by Jo Anne Schneider

Author:Jo Anne Schneider [Schneider, Jo Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Social Work
ISBN: 9780231126502
Google: yJWFP7ccfBIC
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2006-01-15T05:28:38+00:00

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Comparing these five groups on bridging behavior reveals some important differences related to use of various social service and government systems. Although everyone but the stable working class is willing to turn to government or social service agencies when in need, middle-class people experience mainstream resources very differently than those with less economic power and social capital connections among those providing service. The rising educated middle class are often the peers of those providing social service because they work as professionals themselves. They expect equal treatment and may be treated better than their less advantaged peers.2 As they did for Lydia, social service agencies and government have provided important, positive supports in the past. When government or social service experiences are negative, the rising educated middle class know how to effectively file complaints or seek changes in the system (Lopez and Stack 2001). They vote, run for office, serve on boards, and have no problems calling a supervisor when they need to. They are also more likely to experience better service because they may have social capital ties to needed services and are more likely to use systems designed for the entire community, such as educational referral systems, than the needs-based systems designed for the poor.

Although low-skilled workers and people with limited work experience are even more likely to use social service systems, they experience them very differently because their economic circumstances dictate different power relations to these systems. They also often experience different systems than those with more stable incomes. People in these groups must depend on the good will and quality of often overworked front-line workers to gain assistance. They have little power in relationships with agencies and often see themselves as victims of capricious systems. As the literature on welfare use documents, these concerns are often well founded (Kingfisher 1996;Susser 1982;Susser and Kreniske 1987). Although people in these groups have social capital resources that help them know where to apply for aid, they seldom have social capital relationships with anyone working in a service-provision capacity in government. Their cultural capital may also clash with that of the social service agency or government worker. They may have friends who work or volunteer at community-based social service agencies, and often consider these organizations first choice for some kinds of assistance. Low-skilled and limited-work-experience families also use social service agency workers at community-based organizations as bridging agents to deal with government.

Also, low-skilled and limited-work-experience families often lack the cultural knowledge and social capital contacts to accurately evaluate an array of available resources. Like the numerous Social Network Study participants who chose low-quality training programs from advertisements on the subway or television (Schneider 2000), these people have no way of knowing whether a training program will live up to its claims. Their limited financial resources also play a key role in choices. For example, one rising-educated-middle-class woman from Kenosha initially hesitated when her middle-class coworkers suggested that she obtain advanced education because, she explained, she “had no money.” She agreed

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