So What?

Homocide: A Year on the Killing Streets

Image via Wikipedia

I've just finished reading Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon, one of the script writers for the television series, The Wire.  This book is the result of a year's placement he had with Baltimore's homicide police in 1988.

I found this passage, which struck me as apt for its time and for the present day.  It comes towards the end of the book (page 635) where Simon is writing about his time on placement in retrospect.  He writes of the changes he's seen in the Baltimore police since 1988:

I came to realise that there was something emblematic here: that in postmodern America, whatever institution you serve or are served by - a police department or a newspaper, a political party or aa church, Enron or Worldcom - you will eventually be betrayed.

It seemed very Greek the more I thought about it.  The stuff of Aeschylus and Sophocles, except the Gods were not Olympian but corporate and institutional.  In every sense, ours seems a world in which individual human beings - be they trained detectives or knowledgeable reporters, hardened corner boys or third-generation longshoremen or smuggled eastern European sex workers - are destined to matter less and less.

Simon wrote these words in 2006 and I think they reflect exactly the situation we find ourselves in today.  We have seen it in the financial crisis, MPs' expenses, News International and the various scandals that have rocked the police in London.  And we've seen it in the riots and the response of decent people to the riots, who have lost any sense of the gains made by previous generations whereby bullets are not fired at crowds, whatever they are doing (except in N Ireland during the Troubles).

It is partly a cult of the young.  It seems inconceivable experience might count for anything.  Short term funding schemes mean communities cannot build a resource of people who know the area and its history.  They are recruited and after 3 years have to move on.  As there is no career structures, the best move onto other things so few garner experience over a lifetime's career.  This is reflected in all walks of life; we are told it is foolish to assume you are in a job for life.  Who can say this is not true?

Qualitative Analysis 2

Image via Wikipedia

This is from my handout for the Study Year in January.

Introduction

Last time I introduced qualitative approaches to analysis and the first two steps for soft systems analysis.  There are six steps in all and this time I will introduce the remaining four steps.  Like many of these formal approaches, I find I rarely slavishly follow all six steps but use them as I find opportunities.  Being familiar with this method has changed the way I approach problems on the ground.

The point is things rarely operate according to theory, whether the theory is from  science, social sciences or theology.  In reality, we’re on the ground and have to make decisions in situations which sometimes are not as they should be in theory.

Practitioners of all types know theory, whilst helpful, rarely resolves the problems they face in real life.  Being stuck is a common experience and I’ll return to this in more detail next time.

System Definition (Step 3)

To arrive at a system definition you need six pieces of information.  For each of these six, you will be able to list many options.  To arrive at the definition you choose one from each of the six lists and put them together.

There is a mnemonic: CATWOE

Client – imagine you are a consultant and list your possible clients. 

Actors – these are sometimes known as stakeholders, everyone who has an interest in the system you’re analysing. 

I find the distinction between clients and actors very helpful.  So, you might be a consultant acting for the managers of a community cafe or of their landlords, a local church.  These 2 organisations have different interests and so if you define two systems the same in all respects apart from these two clients, you may end up with very different results.  So, by changing the client you can put yourself in the shoes of those who might be making decisions.  You could in principle have the same list for clients and actors and indeed there may be advantages in thinking about customers as clients, for example.  The interests of customers would be very different to the interests of those who manage the enterprise.

Transformations – these are the tasks and issues identified at step 2 but you may need to express them as a transformation – what do you want to change?  From what ... to what?

Worldview – these are the prevailing assumptions made by the actors and clients.  The problem may be around differences in the way people perceive the world.  You will need to identify the ones that shape the current situation and of course some may be in conflict.

Operations – these are the steps that need to be taken to bring about change.  See step 4.

Environment – the trends, events and demands of the political, legal, economic, social, demographic, technological, ethical, competitive, natural environments provide the context for the situation and specific problem arena. We need to understand these.

Operations (Step 4)

These are the steps you need to work through to bring about change.  Clearly any step you take may change the nature of the following operational steps.  But it is important to have some sense of the path you need to take to arrive at the transformation you have chosen.  For the first step, you may need to make a detailed list.  For example, if you need to find out more information, list all the things you need to know.

Ideal and Real (Step 5)

Choose the most significant of the things you need to do or find out.  Now, list what you would wish for in an ideal world.  Alongside this list, write in the real situation.  This again challenges you to step outside the theoretical model and consider the reality of the situation you are in.  But it is possible you will begin to see some things where changes can readily be made.

Action Steps (Step 6)

Identify what steps you need to take to move from the real towards the ideal.  Steps 5 and 6 together are sometimes known as a needs analysis. 

Related articles

• Qualitative Analysis (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)

Passiontide 44: Matthew

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.  The tempter came and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.'  But he answered, 'It is written, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."'  Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, "He will command his angels concerning you", and "On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone."'  Jesus said to him, 'Again it is written, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."'  Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, 'All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.'  Jesus said to him, 'Away with you Satan! for it is written, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."'  Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited upon him.  (From: Matthew 4:1-11, NRSV)

This passage was the subject of my Masters dissertation in Applied Theology, during the 1990s.  The theme of the work was Social Auditing and I found the claim that these temptations are unique to Jesus as somewhat misleading.  These are temptations for managers as much as they are for Messiahs. 

The devil is trying to tie Jesus to the standards of Scripture.  He presents each option to Jesus; they are indeed what all reasonable people would expect of a Messiah.  Jesus rejects them all, using scripture in his own way.  He departs from the wilderness with no plans and no powers, just open to where God might lead and willing to deal with whatever happens.

Lent 33: Ann Morisy

Let me stress very clearly that there is no problem with establishing a project as a response to a perceived need in the community, for example, providing hospitality for recently arrived asylum seekers in a neighbourhood, or in response to a high proportion of frail, elderly people in the parish.  Such an expression of care is to be commended and cherished.  The problem of 'needs meeting' begins to arise when the provision being made goes beyond hospitality, and the complexity of the needs of the 'clients' starts to be recognised.  At this point, the project may automatically assume it has to respond by providing a greater diversity of services and a more professional approach to its work.  The temptation is to drift into a feeling of obligation to pursue the needs of the client group, and the decision to develop additional provision in order to respond more adequately to the needs of clients is hard to challenge.  Only the most hardhearted could speak against such a commitment, and that may be precisely the trap for churches.  The urge to meet the client's needs more thoroughly is beyond rebuke, but it may indicate a failure of the imagination and confidence in the transforming power of God.  (From: Journeying Out: A new approach to Christian Mission , page 27)

I have heard Ann Morisy speak and I have been impressed by her energy and understanding of church related community work.  She was one of the authors of Faithful Cities : A call for celebration, vision and justice - a publication that marked the twentieth anniversary of Faith in the City .

Her concern in Journeying Out is how easily our intentions to work participatively are undermined by our desires to do the right thing.  It seems most of the problems we face are caused by people who sincerely believe they are doing the right thing.  How do we know whether or not we are doing the right thing?

 

Lent 27: Muhammad Yunus

The next day I called in Maimuna, a university student who collected data for me, and I asked her to assist me in making a list of how many in Jobra, like Sufia, were borrowing from traders and missing out on what they should have been earning from the fruits of their labours.  Within a week we had prepared a list.  It named forty-two people who in total had borrowed 856 taka, a total of less than $27.  'My God, my God, all this misery in all these forty-two families all because of the lack of $27!' I exclaimed.  Maimuna stood there without saying a word.  We were both astounded, shocked, but also sickened by the pathos of it all.  (From: Banker to the Poor , page 11)

The first edition of Yunus' autobiography, was published in 1998 and I read it in 1999, during a short period of unemployment.  The truth Yunus discovered is the poor are kept poor because they can't get credit.  Without credit they are trapped in a cycle of poverty.  In Bangladesh the amounts they need are unbelievably small.  This made the Grameen Bank a possibility.

Like so many of the radical ideas that really work, this approach is based upon trust.  It is not about making a profit, but it is about helping people prove their own ability to work their way out of poverty.  Why are we not able to do this in our communities in Britain?

Lent 24: Robert Linthicum

The primary purpose of a community organisation is to create a community - to create out of a victimised, marginalised, destructive conglomerate of people a community whose quality of life is such that people find fulfilment and joy in living there.  It is to enable the people to build their society around their common articulated, intentionally pursued values.  If such a community is not created, then all that we have accomplished through community organising is the replacement of one oppressor by another in the tyranny of the now powerful poor.  The power of the oppressor must be replaced by a quality of corporate life that is of such superiority to either the formerly oppressed or their oppressors that it brings purpose, direction, joy, and fulfillment to all who experience it.  That is the true objective of community organisation.  (From: Building a People of Power , page 243)

Linthicum, with others, picked up Allinski's  organising and made Citizens' Organising the powerful movement it is today in the United States.  It is worth putting Linthicum's approach alongside Lovell's (see yesterday's post).  What they have in common is the commitment to allowing others the space to make their own community or their own ministry.

We see, in the tendency for the oppressed to turn oppressor, the need to understand this flaw in all human relationships.  Traditionally, Christians call this sin.  The struggle to maintain community, in the inner city as much as in religious communities, is a call to live life on the knife edge.  This is why John Wesley  said, there is no holiness apart from social holiness.

Lent 23: George Lovell

But the time and energy to think is strictly limited!  It simply is not possible to think in a thorough-going way about everything all the time.  Doing so would paralyse us.  This does not mean, as some infer, that there is little point in trying to think about anything in depth.  On the contrary, it points us to the vital importance of selecting carefully just what we should be thinking about at any particular time.  Of itself that requires thought.  Life is, in fact, sustained by an ever changing pattern of doing things without thinking, doing and thinking at the same time, and thinking before doing.  Human and spiritual development occurs when the combination of thought and action is creatively integrated.  (From: Analysis and Design , page 16)

I think I first encountered George Lovell in the early 1990s, when he was involved with Avec, at Chelsea Methodist Church.  At that time, I took one of the Avec courses.  (Avec is the French for with.)  Over ten years later, I took part in his post-graduate diploma, Consultancy, Mission and Ministry, which drew on his long experience of non-directive practice for church and community workers.  If Britain has a home grown equivalent to Citizens' Organising in the States, it was Avec and more recently the CMM course, which continues despite George Lovell's retirement.  It is a pity his work is not better known but then non-directive working has never been particularly valued in the UK.

The creative integration of thought and action is sometimes called Praxis.  I believe all the great movements of Christian inspired change have achieved, at least for a period, integration of thought and action.  Sometimes we call it integrity.  This is a theme we should reflect upon, particularly if we value the transformation of human societies.

Lent 6: Saul Alinski

The means-and-ends moralists, constantly obsessed with the ethics of the means used by the Have-Nots against the Haves, should search themselves as to their real political position. In fact, they are passive — but real — allies of the Haves…. The most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means... The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world as it should be ... .  (from Rules for Radicals , 1971, page 25ish)

I really must get hold of this book!  I must have borrowed it from the library at the Urban Theology Unit in the early 80s and the memory has stayed with me.  Alinski's earlier book Reveille for Radicals  is also worth a look.  This is a too short excerpt but offers a flavour of Alinski's hard edged approached.  The Industrial Areas Foundation in the United States, bases its Citizens' Organising on the work of Alinski, and is supported primarily by the churches.

Alinski's mission was to empower the poor and he wrote of 'rubbing raw the sores of discontent'.  This cuts across the quiet calm ordered nature of so much of our religion.  And yet he was in that same tradition as Winstanley, aware that it is the carpenters and fishermen (and the unemployed!) who make change happen, not the politicians or the millionaires.