The Other Philadelphia Story: How Local Congregations Support Quality of Life in Urban America (The City in the Twenty-first Century) - Hardcover

Buch 52 von 53: The City in the Twenty-First Century

Cnaan, Ram A.; Boddie, Stephanie C.; Mcgrew, Charlene C.; Kang, Jennifer J.

 
9780812239492: The Other Philadelphia Story: How Local Congregations Support Quality of Life in Urban America (The City in the Twenty-first Century)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0812239490 ISBN 13: 9780812239492
Verlag: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

For people living in U.S. cities, social services come not only from the government but increasingly also from local religious communities. Ever since the Clinton administration's welfare reform, faith-based institutions, and especially congregations, have been allowed to bid for federal funds for their programs. In The Other Philadelphia Story, drawing on the first-ever census of congregations in any American city, Ram Cnaan and his colleagues provide an authoritative account of the functioning of congregations, their involvement in social services, and their support of other charitable organizations.

An in-depth study of 1,392 congregations in Philadelphia, the book illuminates how these groups function as community hubs where members and neighbors alike gather throughout the week. Cnaan's findings show that almost every assembly of parishioners emphasizes caring for others, even if the help is modest. Thus American congregations uphold an implicit but strong norm of social responsibility and work to improve the quality of life for members and nonmembers alike.

Many of the problems associated with urban life persist in the face of governmental inaction, and the burden of responsibility cannot be shouldered entirely by congregations. However, in a city such as Philadelphia, where half the residents are regular attenders of religious congregations, hopes for urban improvement are largely to be found in these local groups.

Special focus is given in the book to kinds of care that often go unnoticed: volunteerism, provision of refuge, and informal assistance to community members in need. All told, Cnaan asserts, congregations are an essential component of Philadelphia's civil society. Without them, the quality of life would deteriorate immeasurably.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ram A. Cnaan is Professor, Associate Dean for Research, and Chair of the Doctoral Program in Social Welfare, as well as Director of the Program for Religion and Social Policy Research, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. He is the author of The Newer Deal: Social Work and Religion in Partnership and The Invisible Caring Hand: American Congregations and the Provision of Welfare.

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Preface

Background

Readers of my previous books, The Newer Deal (Columbia University Press, 1999) and The Invisible Caring Hand (New York University Press, 2002) may be familiar with some aspects of this introduction. I came to Philadelphia in 1986 as a visiting scholar for one year. My academic interests at the time focused on how best to provide public social services to people in need. In fact, I did not even perceive nonpublic social services as worthy of academic attention. I am still interested in how societies organize themselves to help their needy members, but I am now more aware of complementary modes to the public-run system.

I was born in Israel and trained as a social worker in the European framework that took for granted the presence of a benevolent and wise government that assumed the responsibility for addressing all social ills. It was to the government that citizens came with new social problems, and it was the government who planned and carried out the intervention. When I began working and studying in the United States, I was amazed by the limited role the United States government plays in civic life and the distrust of most citizens toward their government. I noticed that, in the United States, in the absence of a benevolent government welfare system, thousands of volunteers and voluntary organizations fill this gap and comprise an active civic life. I turned to the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) to find an academic home where the world of voluntarism and nonprofit organizations is best studied and explored. It was there that I was exposed to faith-based organizations as agents of welfare services. Little did I know that in this venue I would also meet my wife!

In ARNOVA, I also met people who studied nontraditional organizations such as volunteer fire fighters, alternative schools, self-help groups, and also religious congregations. As time passed, I was struck by the significant role religious congregations play in maintaining social care networks and community life in America. Throughout the late 1990s, I found numerous newspaper articles on the role of the American religious congregations in restoring civic life in our communities, political speeches on the importance of congregations, and legislation encouraging the participation of congregations and other faith communities in the public life of our society. Yet, I could not find any serious academic discussion about the nexus between the faith community and social service provision. My observations and those of my students suggested that these faith communities serve as the American "safety net," social arrangements that guarantee that people who are unable to meet basic needs are supported and are able to survive. The paucity of rigorous research in this area both troubled and challenged me. Consequently, I made it my academic mission to rigorously study this area and shed light on this very American institution.

As I began to study faith-based organizations, I realized that most social scientists tend to shy away from faith-based organizations in general-and congregations in particular. In fact, as is discussed in chapter 1, I could not even find a good working definition of a "congregation" in the social science literature. I am still amazed by the paucity of literature on congregational involvement in social and community service provision. The overwhelming majority of the available resources is political, ideological, and if empirical, based on one or two cases. This book is based on a thorough study of one American city: Philadelphia, PA. Through a detailed and painstaking process, my team and I identified 2,120 religious congregations in Philadelphia. As is detailed in the methodological appendix, we managed to interview 1,392 of them. This was the first census of congregations in any American city. Throughout the book we refer to the Philadelphia Census of Congregations as PCC.

Each interview was conducted on the premises of the congregation and lasted at least three hours. The resulting set of data is the first to offer us a broadly representative, yet detailed, picture of what religious congregations do to enhance the quality of life in one large American city. Readers in other large urban settings will need little help extrapolating to their own cities. It will be clear to them how much of our social capital and civic energy is the result of the quiet work of congregational members.

Like any historic city, Philadelphia has its own special characteristics. It is known as "the city of brotherly love," a translation from Greek that is old enough to be politically incorrect in its gender-exclusivity. The city prides itself for introducing a few items into our national culinary repertoire, such as the Philly cheese steak, soft pretzel, funnel cake, and water ice (AKA snow-cones). It was at one time the most important city in America, the site where independence was declared and the constitution was signed. The Liberty Bell still attracts tens of thousands of tourists to town, and the historic district offers a unique American experience. One can still find the printing press used by Benjamin Franklin and the place where Betsy Ross made the first American flag.

At one time, Philadelphia was the second largest English-speaking city in the world. In the late 18th century it served as the first capital of the United States. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) was founded in 1790 and was the country's first stock exchange. But, in the past two hundred years, Philadelphia fell victim to its neighbors' success. Washington, D.C. took over as the center of government; New York City took over as the center of finance. The PHLX is still active, but very few stocks are traded solely in the PHLX and it mostly serves as a means to facilitate contact with the New York Stock Exchange and other such stock exchange outlets. Throughout the years, Philadelphia became something of a stop between Washington, DC and New York City, similar to Baltimore. But Philadelphia is still unique. As a newcomer to the city, one who had previously lived in Pittsburgh and Boston, I thought of myself as an expert in planting roots in new cities and finding friends and contacts. Philadelphia, however, was different.

In Philadelphia, you are a newcomer for the first fifteen years if not for the first generation. This is the city and region with the highest number of native-born still living here as adults. People who grow up in Philadelphia tend to stay around or come back after college and start families here. My first personal experience with this phenomenon was when my son's first-grade class teacher announced that grandparents' day would take place. When I enquired about it, I was told that most kids have grandparents living in the area. Indeed, two-thirds of the kids in my son's class had at least one grandparent attending, and some had three or four. As a newcomer, I doubled as a parent and a grandparent, as did a few other newcomers. To my amazement, in the United States, where geographical mobility is the norm, Philadelphia grandparents, parents, and children live in the same community and manifest stability and continuity.

People who have their grade-school and high-school friends living alongside them do not usually need new friends. The social networks of most Philadelphians are rich with people whom they know from childhood. Thus it takes a great deal of energy to allow newcomers to join in. Stephen Fried, who wrote an insightful book on the selection of a new rabbi by a Philadelphia area synagogue (The New Rabbi), found the same difficulties, although he only moved into Philadelphia from Harrisburg, Pa. He states:In Philadelphia, where all newcomers are viewed with suspicion for the first, oh, ten to fifteen years. In many metropolitan areas,...

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Verlag
University of Pennsylvania Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2006
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0812239490
ISBN 13 
9780812239492
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
334
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
preigu
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