Category: **ESPC Documents: Publications

Book by Betsey Leondar-Wright, 2005
Reviewed by Anette Kinley in December 2008 Research Update

It is often the case that organizations or groups trying to address poverty and working-class issues are mainly, if not totally, represented by middle-class people. The differences in perspectives and life experiences between classes can lead to a variety of misunderstandings, missteps and frustrations that create barriers to working together effectively toward common goals.

Class Matters is an engaging collection of stories and practical ideas from experienced advocates that illuminate how the class differences that can limit the progress of groups working for social change can be overcome. To put it in author Betsy Leondar-Wright’s words, “We all have the choice to get by, get over, or get together. This book is for those who take the “get together” path, and its goal is to help us get together across class differences.” (page 7)

Even though I haven’t read it from cover to cover – yet! – I am convinced that Class Matters should be recommended, if not required, reading for people working for social change. It is of particular interest to those who are working with, or seeking to work with, people from diverse class backgrounds (and across cultures, ethnicities, gender, sexual orientations, etc.).

The variety of issues covered by this book makes it difficult to summarize. One of its main focuses, however, is recognizing and countering the socially conditioned, and often unconscious, behaviours and assumptions that distance middle-class activists from the working-class people they are trying to help.

“… we all make mistakes. There’s not a middle-class person alive who hasn’t said dumb,insensitive things that step on working-class toes. … As we talk, working-class people notice how oblivious or how aware of class issues we seem, and make decisions about how much to collaborate with us based on those evaluations, among others factors. The goal of reducing the classism in our speech is not to keep ourselves out of trouble by avoiding angering working-class people, and it’s not to reach some kind of perfect non-classist purity. The goal is to make ourselves more trustworthy and to alienate working-class people less so that we can work together for economic justice and other common goals.” (page 89)

The book concludes with practical tips and resources to help break down the barriers of class difference and enable groups to work together effectively for social change. Some of these tips include: 

• Moving from pretense to authenticity: building trust through honesty in dialogue.
• Moving from politeness and caution to openness and humor: build relationships through friendliness and respect.
• Moving from competition and superiority to confident humility: recognizing our common limitations as human beings.
• Moving from excessive abstraction to groundedness: rooting discussion and action in reality.
• Moving from guilt to balanced responsibility: avoiding being mislead or immobilized by guilt.
• Moving from individual achievement to community interdependence: seeing the big picture, balancing individual tasks and relation-ships/working together.

Class Matters is now at the top of my reading list! If you’re experiencing, or just plain interested in, the tensions and challenges (and rewards!) of cross-class work, you might want to add it to yours, too.

Book by Charles Durrett, 2009

Reviewed in April 2009 Research Update & featured in Summer 2009 fACTivist newsletter

Senior cohousing is a model of independent-intradependent living that is vastly different from assisted living facilities and retirement communities, and distinct from communes and intentional communities. The cohousing model incorporates both private dwellings and common facilities, designed specifically for a community of residents – in this case, seniors – interested in building a supportive community together.

Now, I‘m only in my mid-20s, but this book actually made me want to move into a Senior Co-housing community! The book is full of interviews, pictures, design plans, and stories of suc-cessful (and a few unsuccessful) cohousing com-munities. What resonates most strongly is the contentment, satisfaction and fulfillment of actively participating in a community as an alterna-tive to our independent, and often isolated, family households.

Cohousing for seniors takes the uniqueness of aging into account. Some communities, for ex-ample, incorporate an extra suite for a full-time caregiver to occupy, should one of the residents find themselves in need of that type of support. Mutual care and support seem to be the norm in the communities profiled in this book. As one resident explained, “In the house where I‘m living now, if I fall off a ladder, who‘s going to know? In cohousing, even if you‘re in your own house, you‘re going to know if you don‘t see somebody”. Senior cohousing provides community supports in many different forms, such as shared meals, community activities and events, easy opportunities to informally visit and socialize, and the opportunity to help one another with chores and errands. The model provides the peace of mind of knowing that there is always somebody that you know and trust if you really need help, and because all community members will be in need of some supports at some point, providing care or help is not viewed as burdensome, but rather as a form of insurance.

These social features seem to be what make the cohousing model stand out from other models. In many of the examples, a group of potential community members engaged in a long process of visioning, designing, and building their community. Community principles, obligations, decision-making processes, and conflict resolution are discussed and agreed upon at the outset, meaning that residents come to cohousing with a commitment to one another, and an idea of the shared values of the community. Participating in the design process means that the community can be structured both to fit and to be flexible. Some communities have prioritized features like easy access to shopping and services, accessible floor plans and elevators, extra-quiet individual units, and energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. Communities can include both higher and lower income seniors, and the vast majority of cohousing communities are financially self-sustaining.

This book does a great job of illustrating the potential of the senior cohousing concept. It gives examples of what has worked and what has failed, and provides resources and answers questions for people looking to start or to join a senior cohousing community. The handbook contains examples from Denmark, the USA, and around the world. In addition to looking at some of the advantages and risks, the handbook answers common questions regarding the physical design, the social design, financial considerations, the planning process, and the day-to-day life in a cohousing community.

Book by Martin Sanchez-Jankowski, 2008

Reviewed by Cheryl Melney in April 2009 Research Update

Martin Sanchez-Jankowski, the author of Cracks in the Pavement, took a very serious approach in his research of poor neighborhoods. He spent nine years immersed in fieldwork, where he studied five different poor neighborhoods, three in New York (the Bronx and Brooklyn, not NYC), and two in Los Angeles. He stayed with families who live in crowded social housing, and he spent his days interacting with people in a number of different social settings. 

In Cracks in the Pavement, Sanchez-Jankowski focuses specifically on five different social institutions in poor neighborhoods, these being:

• Social housing complexes;
• ‘Mom and Pop’ grocery stores;
• Barber shops and Hair Salons;
• Gangs; and
• Schools

Sanchez-Jankowski’s work clarifies many misconceptions about the poor that previous researchers have made, such as the assumption that poor neighborhoods are naturally disorganized. He points out that many poor neighborhoods are in fact quite organized and have social rules and accepted behaviors that are generally understood within the neighborhood. He also points out how adaptable poor neighborhoods are to the many outside forces that affect them.
What is most interesting about this book is that Sanchez- Jankowski is able to immerse the reader into the neighborhoods he studies. There are many anecdotes and quotes from the residents, which help you “get to know” the people in this book, and give a sliver of understanding about their lives. This book is also very respectfully written. Sanchez-Jankowski himself grew up in a poor neighborhood, so he is better able to understand how to interact with people appropriately. 

This book also explores power relations amongst social institutions and in the neighborhoods. For example, in one community, the housing board who runs the social housing sometimes allow people into the housing complex that do not actually qualify, such as new immigrants, because they are considered likely to pay their rents. This choice not only excludes people who actually do qualify for housing, in one neighborhood it also created conflict between recent Mexican immigrants and Mexican families who were born in the United States.

Cracks in the Pavement is interesting from a social policy perspective in that it helps us better understand how various policies can affect the delicate makeup of poor neighborhoods. This book is written about American neighborhoods, so of course some the issues are not applicable in Canada. However, the characteristics of resilience and creativity cross over to all people who have had to survive in economic hardship and deprivation, and this book really gave me a sense of admiration for the people whose lives it depicts.

Book by Jennifer Fosket and Laura Mamo, 2009
Reviewed in July 2009 Research Update

All too often, ‘going green’ is used as a catch-all term for activities like recycling, using cloth grocery bags, and switching to energy efficient lightbulbs. Don’t get me wrong – these are great activities, but in this book, authors Jennifer Foskett and Laura Mamo illustrate how communities across North America are engaging in much more holistic, people-centred, and socially just practices of ‘going green’.

Living Green: Communities that Sustain tells the stories of how we can create communities that are both socially and environmentally sustainable.  It includes a number of case studies of different sustainable living designs, including homes and communities that are based on a number of different concepts of sustainability, such as:

• Ecovillages such as LA Ecovillage, where residents share common facilities and a commitment to living in harmony with the environment. Some interesting features of the community include ‘car retraining’ sessions, community meals on the street, community gardens, and a bike kitchen.
• Elder cohousing (for more on this, see the review on The Senior Cohousing Handbook)

• Aging in community designs such as Chez Soi in Montreal. The formerly tight knit community of young families – and the buildings – had disintegrated over the decades. It became a difficult and isolating place to live for the primarily senior residents. Renovations to some of the buildings preserved the positive aspects and improved on others. Common spaces such as kitchens, gardens, and a breezeway allow community members to rebuild relationships and support one another.
• Co-operative housing
• Mixed-supportive green housing such as the Folsom/Dore apartments in San Francisco. The mixed income building includes a minimum of 20 units for individuals who have been chronically homeless, 20 units for individuals and families at risk of homelessness and a number of market-rate units. Everybody shares a number of common areas (including meeting spaces, day rooms and computer room) and greenspaces and gardens, all in an environmentally designed building and grounds.
• Green nuclear family homes and neighbourhoods.

There are countless ideas and designs in sustainable living; this book highlights the benefits that residents experience from living in communion with others, but also notes the difficulties and challenges that creating community can pose. Unlike many books on green housing that simply focus on the physical elements of sustainability – water conservation, alternative energies, recycled materials, etc. – this book is unique in its discussion of the social features that make our communities sustainable: diversity, support, inclusion, solidarity, equality. Living Green is a useful resource for anybody involved in building  sustainable communities, or simply interested in learning more.

Series of provincial and territorial reports by various authors, edited by the Canadian Council on Social Development, 2009. 

Reviewed in July 2009 Research Update

• Did you know that, unlike in most parts of Canada, poverty rates in rural Nova Scotia are higher than those in urban Nova Scotia?
•  Did you know that 22% of Yukoners have reported having financial difficulties securing food?
• Did you know that 50% of children of Aboriginal descent in Saskatchewan live in poverty?

This series of reports takes an in-depth look at poverty, poverty reduction policies, and community action on poverty in 9 provinces and 2 territories (remaining provincial/territorial profiles are forthcoming).  The reports are each written by different authors, and highlight trends and statistics, explain the historical context, and examine current initiatives.

The Alberta report examines our province’s historic boom-bust economic cycle and patterns of poverty. It looks at government responses to poverty: the development of a social safety net, subsequent erosion of supports, and more recently, the challenges posed by the latest economic boom. The Alberta profile also takes into account the growing role of the voluntary sector in addressing poverty, and questions what this might mean for poverty reduction in the province.

We know that many of the provinces and territories have similar struggles to those we face in Alberta when it comes to poverty and the attempt to eliminate it. This series of reports shows how other jurisdictions across Canada are dealing with poverty – both at the local and provincial levels. Unique programs, innovative solutions, and strategic partnerships are being creatively implemented from coast to coast to coast.

For example:

The Newfoundland and Labrador report documents how the consistent work of community groups and government, together with a depressed economy after the collapse of the fisheries shaped the political, social, and economic context in which the province’s Poverty Reduction Strategy – one of the first in Canada – was created. The Poverty Reduction Strategy followed years of collaborative effort marked by both victories and losses for anti-poverty advocates. While there is still a long way to go in terms of dealing with poverty in Newfoundland, the report notes that a lot of progress has been made since the implementation of the provincial strategy in 2006: more people are working, fewer are reliant upon Income Support, and the number of people living below LICO is falling. What can Albertans learn from the experiences of Newfoundlanders?

The BC report similarly looks at the history of poverty and poverty policy responses in the province. It looks at how frequent political shifts and the boom/bust economic cycle in the province have affected social programs and the well-being of communities. It notes that while there are some initiatives on behalf of the government to address poverty, several population groups are now experiencing increased risk of poverty.  Like in Alberta, government seems to have taken a backseat; and it has been civil society actors that have played – and continue to play – the central role in poverty prevention and reduction in BC.

This resource is useful for anybody interested in learning more about poverty and poverty reduction programs across the country. Each provincial/territorial profile is written by local experts, and the references contain information about many of the groups and individuals that work both behind-the-scenes and on the front-lines in poverty reduction. You can download the individual reports from the website of the Canadian Council for Social Development (although beware, there have been some troubles with this website of late), or you can access hard copies in our library.

ESPC Documents/PUBLICATIONS/A.06.C RESEARCH UPDATES/2009 July Research Update of the Edmonton Social Planning Council.pdf