:Title: Charity vs Social justice approach :Author: Ellie Langford Parks :Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:14:00 PDT :URL: http://www.ned.com/group/community-general/news/263/ I wrote this piece for the local paper, it hasn't been published yet so thought I'd ask for your thoughts. Do people think about approaches and the different methods/ tactics of social change? Any feedback much appreciated. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Salt Spring has a wealth of passionate citizens who care about conditions beyond their immediate family and community. You might call this activism, social change, community service or involvement, volunteering, charity work, being a good citizen…..whatever you call it, there’s a lot of it happening on Saltspring. There are 23,000 non profit organizations in BC, with 1.5 million people volunteering and with total revenues of over 11 billion dollars. On island we have over 200 non-profit groups focusing on a myriad of issues. They host awareness or fundraising events on concerns such as AIDS/HIV, environment degradation, climate change, anti war, peace, homelessness, GMO foods. These and many more issues are being addressed by social movements. Social movements are made up of many individuals and organizations that believe in the same overall goal. The individuals and organizations have a diverse range of methods and strategies to achieve their goals. The Midwest Academy outlines five methods of organizing for social change; direct service, education, self help, advocacy and direct action. To understand the different approaches, imagine a community with a number of homeless people. A person or group might arrange so that churches allow homeless people to sleep in their buildings, that is a service method. Another method would be doing research on the causes of homelessness or on what other communities were doing to deal with homelessness and letting others know, that’s education. If there were workshops or support groups for homeless people on how to get a job or find housing, that’s self help. If you lobbied elected officials to open shelters or for a guaranteed annual income, that’s advocacy. If the people affected got organized and they themselves decided what they wanted and worked towards it collectively, that is a direct action approach. All strategies are legitimate and useful, yet it is important to analysis your issue and the current context to decide which to use when. While there are many ways to categorise activism, broadly there are two different approaches, charity and social justice. Charity collects from those that have and redistributes to those that don’t have. Looking at the issue of poverty and hunger, food banks are classic examples of the charity approach. The social justice approach is more human rights based and focuses on structural change, which is changing the conditions that result in the need for food banks. Community gardens and collective bulk buying groups, even skills upgrading, employment counselling or advocacy on welfare rates would be a social justice response to poverty. How you frame the issue shapes the solutions you choose. A charity model view might say, these people are lacking food, so we will provide food. The social justice view looks at what are the conditions that cause them to not have enough food. These conditions might be addiction, mental health concerns, immigrant settlement barriers, low wages, no work, skills not suited for the available work or food prices too high. Charity responses often address emergency needs for food, shelter, health care, clothing and the social justice approach is longer term, looking for structural change so the need is no longer exists. Both approaches are needed. We should relieve suffering and work for system change. A challenge is that charity approaches are more likely to receive funding and donations. The need is obvious and the solution clear. The charity model is provides immediate relief and does not challenge the status quo. The social justice approach looks at root causes of issues, which are often complex and difficult to address. Social justice is longer term, less likely to be funded and the outcomes are less certain. The charity approach can leave the recipient feeling ashamed and is often sharply divided into those who give and those who receive. The social justice approach can build community bonds, a sense of belonging, and new skills and confidence. A social work professor told this story of a group of welfare moms who were in a workshop to learn to how to cook nutritious meals using soup bones. One asked “Who got the meat?’ Asking those questions that challenge the current system can lead to new actions. Charity gives relief, social justice analyses and challenges the system. All actions are needed, whatever your method or approach. Continue to contribute to a better world by relieving suffering now and working for systemic change. ---- **Comments** :Author: Jeff Mowatt :Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:07:47 PDT Well Ellie, on this I wholeheartedly agree. Even here where we're far more used to state welfare, there's a tendency for older people to feel shame at being the beneficiary of charity. Ours is a profit for purpose based model also with activism/advocacy directed toward Eastern Europe and childcare reform in particular at this time. http://www.p-ced.com Jeff ---- :Author: Jeff Mowatt :Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:27:10 PDT Somewhere else, I commented recently on the state of affairs here in the UK, with over 600,000 now engaged in the charity/volunteer sector - a number that exceeds the staff of all finance and banking workers. The white paper described in the History tab from the link above, set out to make the point that investing in leveraging community investment enterprise was a better solution than subsidised existence. At the time the US wasn't ready for this kind of intervention. Since then the concept has been far more readily accepted in the UK which adopted social enterpise as government policy in 2002 and implemented the Community Interest Company model in 2005. But that doesn't prevent one just doing it. We for example sell software services to corporations and use the profit to fund our advocacy and activism. ---- :Author: Richard O. Kananga :Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:29:44 PDT Thanks for putting this up Ellie. I looked at social movements sometime back but from a more real-politik perspective; I'll have to think a bit about what I can input in relation to an economic or political economic point of view. Nevertheless, I always have a feeling that social movements will narrow down onto a single issue as opposed to being "holistic", because their emergence is mainly necessitated by a particular socio-political dysfunction. ---- :Author: Dan Bassill :Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:45:24 PDT Ellie, Thanks for posting your article. I've often trying to define the different ways people are involved in charity and social justice, and use visualizations to help me. In my own definition, a) charity is a random act of kindness, such as a response to a big or small tragedy, b) social justice is a more strategic response, because none of the problems we face will be solved in a short time, nor by a single group working in isolation I divide this even further in my thinking to c) personal, those issues that affect me and my family, such as church, school, or a health issue d) those that involve people beyond my family, such as poverty, world peace, water in India, etc. I do this thinking in order to mobilize people and resources to support longterm involvement in volunteer organizations that connect inner city kids with extra adults, extra learning and with future jobs and careers. However, I feel some of the ideas and tools I'm using could be used elsewhere. I encourage you to look at the way we're using concept maps, visualization tools, and Geographic Information Systems maps to point to all of the places where tutor/mentor programs are needed, and all of the people who could be involved in helping kids in each place be more likely to finish school and enter a job some day in the future. Strategy Map: http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/servlet/SBReadResourceServlet?rid=1215092965858_379195929_14793&partName=actualhtmltext GIS Map: http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/programlocator/default.asp Visualization (read some of the articles): http://tutormentor.blogspot.com If you incorporate some of these visual tools in your article and your work, it might help more people in your area converge in their thinking on these issues. ---- :Author: Lars Hasselblad Torres :Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:05:18 PDT :Modified: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:07:10 PDT great! i think an interesting frame might be to help people navigate the choices, and make room for both in their lives - the 'hand out' and the 'hand up' as some crassly choose to see it. either one can fall prey to the `aid`_ and `dependency`_ traps. .. _`aid`: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/4104164.stm .. _`dependency`: http://europeandcis.undp.org/governance/hrj/show/62BBCD48-F203-1EE9-BC5BD7359460A968 ---- :Author: John Powers :Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:08:58 PDT Ellie your letter is beautiful and thought provoking. I've read it several times now but never really sure about what kind of feedback to give. Every reading made me think Yes!, so at least there's that to give. Dan's clear thinking is always a help to me! Lars talking about "navigating the choices" struck a chord. Aid and dependency really do hold pitfalls. But so often in discussion of the pitfalls the onus falls on those most in need and that never rings true. Dan's: social justice is a more strategic response, because none of the problems we face will be solved in a short time, nor by a single group working in isolation brought home the importance of social justice in thinking about all I do. Privilege carries with it responsibility. But sometimes I think to myself "I didn't ask to be privileged!" My priviledge is hardly my fault or my credit, nevertheless I'm left to try to respond. Dependency is a real trap, and responsible action requires deeper ethical consideration than snap judgments. My lifestyle is unsustainable, so social justice means change for me not telling other how to change. And from that perspective it seems real conversations, dialogs and not working in isolation, becomes an ethical responsibility. ---- :Author: Lars Hasselblad Torres :Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:38:11 PDT I should also clarify that I don't quite see the situation as a "charity vs. social justice" thing. That's why I think there can be room for both. Charity, whether random or intentional, can be social, just, and socially just. In fact, I'd go further to say that social justice could be seen as a state that we can choose to seek out, as John you point out. We can seek to "phase change" from socially unjust to socially just in any of our transactions, depending on the conditions (the 'enabling environment'?) from charity to commerce to communication. So for example, you might choose to consistently give to an orphanage that pays sizable administrative fees, or choose another where more moneys are put to direct costs of child care, education, etc. This could be the result of a 'social justice' motivation (or not), although in either case giving could be purely charitable. Also, I am not certain that some of the activities you list, for example "collective bulk buying groups" are social justice. They could be about more base values, like optimizing purchasing power, couldn't they? In the same way, community gardens aren't inherently about social justice (it would be interesting wouldn't it for example to measure the average household income of people tending to community garden plots in cities). Some of the other motivations/benefits could be social, getting ones hands dirty, feeling "close" to the land, exercise, sense of "independence," etc. The question might be, "What are the ways community gardening can be run that serves social justice?" or some such... Where I think your argument really sings is, "How you frame the issue shapes the solutions you choose. A charity model view might say, these people are lacking food, so we will provide food. The social justice view looks at what are the conditions that cause them to not have enough food." You could explore that more - perhaps with an eye toward the kinds of questions that, when answered, help the reader understand how (if they desire) they can transact the state change "from" charity "to" social justice." ---- :Author: Jeff Mowatt :Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:13:31 PDT :Modified: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:41:50 PDT Social justice. Maybe in the case of community bulk buying, ie the classic consumer co-operative one could consider this social capital, relationships between people which translate into cost reductions ie monetary wealth. Community gardens likewise, perhaps delivering small scale employment out of the collective well-being of the community. About orphanages. Those in Eastern Europe being something I know most about. They exists because of people being economically disenfranchised with 90% being economic orphans whose families are unable to support them. There is economic opportunity from government subsidies to "farm" children who are in some cases pimped by authorities for child pornography or become merchandise in the foreign adoption system. 60-70% end up on the streets in prostitution and crime or are trafficked when they "graduate" and there continue to make a significant contribution to the HIV epidemic. The contemporary and reactive approach is for NGOs to support institutions, to make illegal the consumption of pornography and sex trafficking and to fund HIV/AIDS programs. I.e. address the consequences. In a social justice approach the first conclusion to be drawn is that rather than supporting orphanages, they should not actually need to exist and priority given to increase adoption and the creation of family size group care homes. Essentially a first step to isolate them from harm. Then to tackle the primary cause, the creation of wealth in the community from which their families were disenfranchised. Such "social justice" is a classic case of enlightened self-interest, in which we recognise that there's a probability that all the costs of law enforcement, charitable donations and medical aid programs outweigh the cost of eliminating the primary causes. Charity on the other hand can become a form of co-dependency, where the real purpose is lost in supporting institutions which need not exist in the first place. It has a role, and we must learn to distinguish where it is appropriate to do other things. Having said that Charity itself is changing. As I noted elsewhere recently, Oxfam now has plans to follow the path of social enterprise development in Russia. It's an indication that they are taking heed. ---- :Author: Dan Bassill :Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:11:22 PDT Jeff has used visualization in many of his messages and I encourage others to try to find ways to do the same. We're all tossing ideas, which really represent the collection of what we know, not the collection of what is known by people throughout the world about what we're discussing. Thus, I would encourage the mapping of knowledge, as a part of the process of collecting more about what we're talking about. Here's an example: http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/servlet/SBReadResourceServlet?rid=1180618335312_621532345_11273&partName=htmltext This is a map of the links on my web site, as well as essays I've written, and forums where I connect with you and others. The map shows the connection between all of the separate links or categories in one orchestra of purpose. In many sections, there are links to a web site where you can find information that has already been collected, and where anyone can submit new information, or create articles to discuss existing information or ways to use it. Such a map is like "open source technology". It will constantly change as more knowledge from around the world is added, and as people innovate new uses of the knowledge in years to come. At some point it might even represent "most" of what is known about this topic, which would then lead to "what are the ways we can get more people from around the world to draw from this to build their own understanding, or fuel their own problem solving?" Lars, it would seem to me that you could use Peace Tiles to map a strategy, and give attention to it in ways that would create new uses of Peace Tiles, and new ways to draw attention and participation to this process. The more we know, the more we can innovate better solutions to what we do. The more people who are looking at the information who have the talent, resources, time and dollars to help, the greater our chances will be to apply these solutions well in more places. ----