ERIC ED379233: Human Services Reform and Education: Constructed Identities and Freedom?

29 Pages·1994·0.32 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 379 233
SP 035 738
AUTHOR
Briscoe, Felecia M.
TITLE
Human Services Reform and Education:
Constructed
Identities and Freedom?
PUB DATE
[94]
NOTE
29p.
PUB TYPE
Reports
Research/Technical (143)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
Counselor Client Relationship; Higher
Education;
*Human Services; Individual
Power; Institutional
Administration; *Organizational
Change; Power
Structure
IDENTIFIERS
Foucault (Michel); *Identity
(Psychological);
Identity Formation; Immunology;
*Reform Efforts; West
Virginia
ABSTRACT
This paper examines and
analyzes a Human Services
reform initiative in West Virginia
and shows how various components
responded to the reform particularly
in identity construction.
The
analysis used an immunological
metaphor within a Foucauldian
understanding of power and
knowledge. The study gathered
data through
participant and observer interaction
with the ongoing reform effort
including interviews, document
analysis, attendance at meetings,
and
work compiling an assessment of
the local region. The study
analysis
looked at the strategies by which
the reform was working to be
accepted as "Self" by the system
and then how the acceptance of
the
reform acted to identify and give
identity to the clients
as both
"Self" and "Other." Among the
conclusins were: (1) due to
emphases
on collaboration and local decision making
the reform initiative
was
in the process of being
incorporated into the existing
system; and
(2) the client became
a semi-component of the system under
which he
both conditioned and
was conditioned by it. From the
Foucauldian and
immunological perspective the incursion
of power on the construction
of the client's self seemed
almost overwhelming. Some
changes were
advocated including making the
power relations oetween the client
and
other components
more equivalent and recognizing the
many ways in
which the client's identity is
fostered by the system. (Contains
15
references.) (JB)
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HUMAN SERVICES REFORM AND EDUCATION:
CONSTRUCTED IDENTITIES AND FREEDOM?
Felecia M. Briscoe
By:
Assistant Professor
Felecia M. Briscoe, Ed.D.
Contact:
Box 61
Concord College
24712
Athens, WV
[phone]
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2
EDUCATION:
HUMAN SERVICES REFORM AND
FREEDOM?
CONSTRUCTED IDENTITIES AND
Abstract
the current reform initiative
In this study I examine
I use an immunological metaphor
in Human Services.
of power/knowledge
within a Foucauldian understanding
engendered by the reform
to examine the practices
Utilizing the immunological metaphor
initiative.
"clients" to develop that
allows an understanding of
it position the
does not blame the victim, nor does
In particular I focus
"client" as a helpless pawn.
power/knowledge relations
upon the effects of new
upon identity construction.
within human services
Introduction:
immunological metaphor suggested }r
In this paper I use an
action of power/knowledge
Haraway (1991) to explore the
formation within the
(Foucault, 1977 & 1980) upon identity
initiative in the United States
current Human Services reform
Policy, 1991; Gerry & Cert.),
(The renter for the Study of Social
the emerging state and local
In particular, I examine
1992).
and state in which I resile
policies and practices of the county
Network system as an
and their development of the Family Resource
My
reform in human services.
effect of the current national
t
3
in such an
the dangers inherent
analysis will focus upon
and hopes to
human service system
"efficient" comprehensive
suggested by such a reform
which some benefits
suggest a means by
degree of democratic
realized while retaining a
can still be
construction of self.
control over the
ideas
I briefly sketch some
Before I begin my analysis
inform my analysis.
Foucault (1977, 1980) that
proposed by Michel
Knowledge
mutually dependent.
First, power and knowledge are
just as power
of certain sort of power
allows for, the creation
A change
knowledge.
of a certain sort of
allows for the creation
Power does not emarite
change in the other.
in either produces a
subordinate, blt
upon immobilized
from any central point and act
different points of a socially
rather is diffuse and flows among
action and is constantly
Power only exist in
constructed web.
Each of the practices
of all.
created by the practices
flocs.
and from which power/knowledge
constitutes a point through
of the web will affect all othEc
Finally, a change in one point
place
human services initiative takes
My analysis of the
points.
and knowledge.
within this understanding of power
of
has proposed a major reorganization
A national initiative
health, and social services) withir
human services (education,
The rationale and the
Certo, 1992).
the United States (Gerry &
been largely dictated by an
nature of the reform has
Gaebler's Reinventing
understanding similar to Osbourne &
4
4
Osbourne and Gaebler claim that pruning a
Government (1992).
and
large portion of bureaucracy from the stem of government
grafting on business practices in its place will solve the
Osbourne and
problems faced by local and federal government.
Gaebler claim that their entrepenuerial governmentality will r)Dt
only result in a more efficient Human Services system, but at the
citizens and government
same time create greater freedom for both
Like Osbourne and Gaebler's (1992) text, the Human
workers.
Services initiative bases its rationale for reform upon three
The first is the current dissatisfactim
recalcitrant problems.
The
of both providers and users of health and social services.
second is the overwhelming discontent with the current
educational system as exemplified by the Educational Reform Act.
The third, related, and perhaps most debilitating problem is tae
economic difficulties faced by many states and localities.
According to Gerry & Certo (1992) and others (e.g. Morrill,
W, 1992), the goal of the current reform is to transform the
Human Services System into a more efficient system by instituting
(1) The new system will be horizontally
the following changes:
it will cost less at
collaborative rather than hierarchical;
(2)
(3) it will
the national, state, and local levels of government;
provide social services sooner and more efficiently to those
it will treat a child's problems
families in need;
(4)
holistically (the whole child and her family);
it will place
(5)
decision making in the hands of the local community;
(6) it will
5
5
oriented services; and (7)
practice preventive rather than crisis
productive rather than enabling
it will enable families to become
All of
helpless.
families to become increasingly dependent and
desirable by
the foregoing goals have been articulated as
While Osbourne and
Osbourne & Gaebler (1992) with one exception.
the "rowers"
Gaebler (1992) wish to foster collaboration between
budgetary lines,
and "steerers ", and to break down barriers to
public and
their main emphasis is competition among and between
On the other hand, The Human Services
private components.
initiative wishes to foster cooperation and collaboration amon;
In fact:
and between its various public and private components.
they make it a point to discourage competitive thinking.
Gerry & Certo (1992) and others (The Center for the Stud/
of Social Policy, 1991; Morrill, W., 1992, etc.). assert that the
above goals are to be accomplished by instituting, at minimum,
Authority for action will no
the following transformations:
longer reside in a central federal or state government and be
imposed upon local areas, but instead authority for action will
reside in the local communities based upon guidelines providec by
Specific decisions for a local
the state or federal government.
community will be made by local governing board members of a
This collaboration will be fostered by leaders
collaboration.
and facilitator among local schools, businesses, local social
service providers, local health services, local government, and
This collaboration will include the sharing of
local families.
6
6
service providers inclucing
information and money among all human
the penal system, the
the educational system, the welfare system,
Such sharing will
police system, and the health services system.
rigidity of boundaries between
he facilitated by loosening up the
The neecs
budgetary lines.
service providers, of rules, and of
then delegates the
of the client will define the task that
The local governing bcard
apportioning of money and information.
model with
of the collaboration will follow a corporate
Finally,
representatives from each of the above "stake holders".
will be
services to families especially those with multiple needs
made more accessible. Instead of different entry points for
different services, one entry point will provide access for all
services with one case manager coordinating all services for the
For example, there might be social workers
child and family.
installed in public schools so at-risk students have immediate
shopping mall of social
access to other services or perhaps a
services, so to speak, where a person visits the mall and at cae
site is able to select the particular services they wish to
access among the available options.
Various metaphors can be used to analyze and understand tais
According to Howe (1994), Osbourne &
current reform initiative.
Gaebler (1992) use an organic metaphor to acclaim their new ty2e
of governmental reform as one that increases both efficiency and
However, maintains Howe (1994), the
freedom for all citizens.
immunological metaphor suggested by Donna Haraway (1991) better
7
governmental
of current
promise and problems
delineates both the
immunological
Acccrdingly, I use Haraway's
reform initiatives.
suggested by
power/knowledge array
how the
metaphor to analyze
identities of the
reform would act upon
the social service
worker,
(clients, discourse,
of the system
various components
board members, etc).
Age:
Harawav's Immunological
(1991)
Cvborgs, and Women, Haraway
Throughout Simians,
Foucault.
power/knowledge similar to
adopts a perspective on
taat
scientific knowledge such
the production of
Haraway presents
possibilities fpr
of knowledge and the
both the power-riddenness
production
within knowledge/power
cyborgian frolicking
a certain
204-230) relies upon
Haraway (1991,
become perceptible.
metaphor to present
of immunology, as a
immunology, presentation
relations and
possibilities of the current
both the problems and
actions of power/knowledge.
ability to differentiate
is based upon the
Our immune system
all
Immunology suggests that
not-self.
between self and
comprising Other,
comprising Self and those
components, those
(1987) title$
For example, Golub
be read.
have a code that can
and generative grammar
chapters, "The deep structure
one of his
reads a code, the
Once the immune system
of immune response."
actions are taken
Self or Other and
code is recognized as
against those recognizec as
Action is not mobilized
accordingly.
8
The Other is not simply
Self, but it is against the Other.
that calls for
recognized as Other, but as a specific ?then
Our immune system fails when it fails to
specific responses.
when it fails
recognize Self and attacks it as Other (AIDS), or
it to proliferate (cancer).
to recognize not/self and allows
the immune
Notice a key word in the above claim, that is that
In order to recognize
system re-cognizes not/self or the Other.
in
the Other, the Other must already have been known and coded
Self that makes up the immune
some manner into the part of the
If Self encounters Other for the first time, before Self
system.
the codes of Other into
can act, Self must first incorporate
Consequently, the Other is "always already" a part of
self.
However, there are times
Self, yet, at the same time not/self.
when not recognizing the Other is a successful strategy for
In the case of transplants, immunology is
survival of the Self.
busy producing ways to fool the immune system into thinking tha
Thus, in immunology boundaries between
Other is actually Self.
Self and the Other remain of primary importance even as they
become blurred.
These points Can be related to Gershon's rendition of the
historical understandings of immunology (Golub, 1987, 532-36).
Gershon (Golub, 1987, 532-36 in Haraway, 1991) in four plate
drawings depicts the immunological system as an orchestra to
illustrate the self-understanding of immunology in 1968, 1974,
In 1968, the immunological orchestra runs on a
1977, and 1982.
9
hierarchical basis and is conducted by a patriarchal-looking
G.O.D. directs pliant white
Generator of Diversity (G.O.D.).
blood cells (WBC's) into the thymus to pick up various musical
After
instruments (specifically coded for specific-antigens).
the WBC's obtain their specific instruments (i.e. specific
antibodies), G.O.D. directs some white blood cells to remain aid
play and others to march out into the body playing their dictated
immunological tunes.
By 1982, the hierarchy has completely fallen apart and
Mayhem seems to
things are considerably more complicated.
The G.O.D. is ao
prevail, but G.O.D. is enjoying the diversity.
Now, located in the
longer on the outside conducting, WBC's.
thymus, a smiling G.O.D. is being influenced by opposing interast
groupsan angel and devil ride on his shoulders giving
The white blood cells in the thymus are
conflicting advice.
still happily tootling their immunological tunes under the
direction of a specialized WBC conductor who, like the G.O.D. is
also getting mixed messages from two opposing WBC prompters.
Other white blood cells are still gaily marching in and out of
the thymus picking up their immunological instruments as they
Finally the scores for the orchestra are being writtn
proceed.
by two personages that sit on opposite sidelines.
At this poiat
it has become completely impossible to determine just who is ia
charge and power has become diffuse.