Abstract
This is a book about human agency in the face of structural constraints. It is a book about individual transformations linked to social transformations. From Pariahs to Partners tells a social-policy success story regarding the reduction of the number of children in the foster care system in New York City over a 20-year period during which activists successfully created a “countervailing force” to effect change. Community organizers generally always hope to engage disadvantaged communities to contest existing power relationships by mobilizing to take collective actions that bring about desired social change. In this case, activists and their allies were able to become “a part of the power equation.”
The book begins at the inspirational “end” of the story: the system was successfully changed, and the direct action of community-based organizations led to that change. As such, the book offers an inspiring tale of what is possible when various stakeholders work together. The analysis is based on participant observation and case studies of several key organizations. The case studies include the perspective of community activists by leaning heavily on interviews conducted with community organizers, parents, social workers, lawyers, child welfare commissioners, and foundation officers in New York City. David Tobis, the author, is a sociologist and former executive director of The Child Welfare Fund, one of the organizations credited with sparking reforms leading to dramatic declines, over a relatively short period of time, in the number of foster children in the system. The author’s role in a key organization associated with systemic reforms in New York City child welfare policies provides both key insights and oversights in analyzing the data. Tobis is able to present insights, strategies and motivations of community activists and organizations that enable the reader to better understand the key shifts supporting policy changes in the system.
In the strongest part of the book, Tobis contextualizes the child welfare policy change with a socio-historical analysis of the “roller coaster” of reform and crisis experienced since its inception. Specifically, the author meticulously presents key aspects of a historically troubled child welfare system and the federal and local issues involved that frame contemporary problems and possibilities for “the system.” The original position of parents as “pariahs” flows from the stigma of poverty and the orientation of social service agencies to function as “social control” agents. Tobis argues that “regulating the behavior of the poor” has been a greater priority than meeting the needs of poor children and their families. The introduction of the book highlights issues of power alongside policies and practices of child-welfare agencies in New York City. This approach affords the reader a deeper understanding of the multiple levels within which various stakeholders operate. Unfortunately, the sociological gaze sometimes loses focus in the presentation and analysis of the case studies and presentation of organizational activities of key agencies. The stories of parents, who have “been through hell and back” as they made changes in their own lives and became resources for institutional change in the agency, provide a compelling narrative of the transformative power of community activism. These case studies illustrate that part of what cements individual-level changes for parents with overwhelming problems is becoming a part of something meaningful. Similarly, the analysis contained in Chapters Three and Four provides a rich account of the community organizations involved in pressing for change and the process whereby “parents and their allies took advantage of the opportunity to change child welfare policies and practices” (p. xxxii).
What is absent is any serious attempt to assess the power of opposing forces or an honest assessment of why concessions were made. We lose the “big picture” of the function of these agencies, which the author initially employs to introduce the magnitude and importance of the policy changes made. Further, Tobis does not share the inner workings of the community organizations alongside the theoretical considerations of power and resource availability that might have afforded readers a greater perspective on organizational successes. These omissions make it impossible to distinguish contemporary practices from earlier efforts to reform the system described in the first chapter, suggesting that perhaps contemporary efforts are just another high point in the roller coaster of child welfare services. It is difficult to assess the prospects that current reforms will endure because we have no real portrait of the forces allied against such change.
From Pariahs to Partners is particularly strong in highlighting how the involvement of parents in the fight for their rights is transformative for themselves and how this individual-level transformation, when marshaled, collectively leads to better-functioning social services. However, Tobis seems unwilling to acknowledge the inherent precariousness of policy shifts that come about due to individual characteristics and motivations of power brokers within city bureaucracies, social service agencies, and community organizations. It is not clear why the roller coaster that has characterized the delivery of child services in New York City can be presumed to have permanently stopped at the station of current reforms incorporating parents as partners.
The goal of just about every community organization is to build power, and most regard the systematic consideration of the power structure they confront to be a fundamental step toward developing a strategy for obtaining and sustaining their goal. The idea of enacting social change by identifying systems at play is rooted in the notion that what often stands in the way of collective action is a pervasive sense that problems are caused by individual failings and that problems disconnected from systemic issues are pervasive throughout a community. While the systemic issues and power dynamics are not fully explored, From Pariahs to Partners does convincingly narrate the story of the creation of a “countervailing force” in New York City’s delivery of child welfare services. The hopeful story of how parents in the case studies went from “pariahs,” beset with their personal failings, to partners in advocating for changes in the child welfare system is an important contribution in several academic and nonacademic fields associated with social services. This is an incredibly useful book for graduate students, those in social welfare practice, and those involved in the study and practice of community organizing.