Jane Addams

Jane Addams (b. 1860–d. 1935) is considered one of the founding figures in American pragmatist philosophy, social work, and sociology. The daughter of a prominent American politician from Illinois, Addams grew up in a privileged environment that included graduating from college, an opportunity not afforded the majority of women at the time. Addams cofounded one of the earliest social settlements of the Progressive Era, Hull House in Chicago. The settlement began with an unfocused commitment to social amelioration and would evolve into a dynamo social projects. Living there for the remaining nearly fifty years of her life amid one of the most significant migrant influxes that the United States has known, Addams led a community of mostly women who pioneered improving community welfare in education, recreation, labor, sanitation, health, criminal justice, and the arts. An accomplished writer and speaker, Addams engaged the public through academic articles, popular articles, books, and speeches amid her community activism. She would become a friend and colleague of John Dewey, William James, and George Herbert Mead, influencing them as much as they did her. A dominant theme of her work is the idea that democracy is more than a system of government and entails a moral way of being with one another. Addams’s first book was Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), and the title reveals her abiding belief that democracy was a social morality that is in ongoing need of enrichment. A relational social democracy underpins Addams’s social analysis. Her writings address various social and political subjects, including education, peace, labor organizing, child labor laws, race, women’s rights, philanthropy, sex trafficking, and familial relations. Internationally, Addams is best known for her work on peace. She was the first American woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, in 1931. Able to adapt her message to audience and context, Addams also wrote about events such as the Pullman Strike of 1894 and the murder trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti during the 1920s, as well as about people such as Abraham Lincoln, Leo Tolstoy, and Julia Lathrop. In the spirit of American pragmatism, Addams would draw more prominent social themes from individual experiences she confronted, as she did in finding psychosocial forces at work in the proliferation of “Devil Baby” stories among immigrant populations in the summer of 1916. Consistently recognized for her outstanding activism, her intellectual work was overshadowed by prominent male figures during most of the 20th century. However, a reclamation of Addams’s unique contribution began in the 1990s, and in the 2020s, Addams studies are growing as more scholars find inspiration in her methods and writings.

Gads Hill Center: Revisiting the Function and Cause of Social Settlements in a Time of COVID

The Covid-19 pandemic has extended across the globe and has made visible the hyper vulnerability of socially marginalized groups, the inadequacy of public health systems, and the fragility of national and global economic systems. Inflection points, such as the pandemic, often signal that the affected sectors, in this case nation states and their social institutions, regional bodies, and international organizations, must make a fundamental examine and consider the actions needed to strengthen their institutions and footing. In this case study we present how this historical moment has lead a 122 year old American social settlement to reexamine their role and model of practice in an effort to continue to contribute to meaningful changes that diminish human suffering and vulnerability, while advancing the rights and flourishing of the communities of color that they accompany.

Putting knowledge into action: a social work perspective on settlement house research

This chapter aims to explore the link between 'Settlement House research' and the shaping of social work as a profession in two ways. First, by providing an overview of research topics and the methodological diversity. This overview is based on a sample of individual and collective studies that can be traced back to the initiative of social settlements or national settlement associations. Second, two studies are examined in greater depth, focusing on their implications for the emerging social work profession.

The Thematic and Symbolic Potluck at the Animal Farm

Animal farm by George Orwell published in 1945 seems to be a plainly written tale at a cursory glance but it with an in depth study we could fathom the scope of it. Animal farm is rich at diverse flavours all well mixed to give the perfect taste for sensibilities and intellect. Richness of literary techniques, multidimensional narratives, characters and symbolic delicacies is offered by animal farm. The literary richness is exhibited in a simple allegorical form which represents perfect craftsmanship. This paper will discuss the various vital aspects of the novel including its multidimensional themes, felicitous characters, diverse narratives and precise symbols along with the well established techniques of social settlements. George Orwell the writer had an intimate experience of the brutal dealings during World War II, as he corresponded for BBC. He was instigated by the communism at USSR and his desire to bring to light the factual conditions and real reasons which gave birth to the novella Animal Farm. The variety of themes strikes the correct chord of thought. The novella is written in a form of political allegory based on the political and social fervour; where the characters replicate the leaders, common populace, bureaucrats and enterprise-grade at USSR during and after the Russian revolution of 1917.

The forgotten example of 'settlement sociology': Gender, research, communities, universities and policymaking in Britain and the USA, 1880–1920

Many of the social investigations carried out in social settlements established in Britain and the USA in the period from the 1880s to the 1920s are early examples of participatory research based on a theory of knowledge with 'citizen experience' at its centre. This research, much of it done by women, was often methodologically innovative and enormously influential in shaping public policy. Its history is bound up with that of disciplinary specialization, in which women's research and reform work have been classified, and thus hidden, as 'social work'.

The Swiss Reformations

This chapter analyzes Reformation events in the Swiss Confederation as local manifestations of pan-European movements of religious change. After setting the early emergence of strong evangelical and radical movements for reform in the political and cultural context of the Confederation—a distinctive polity within the Holy Roman Empire—the article traces a trajectory from early reform movements triggered by Ulrich Zwingli’s preaching through a period of political and social settlements from the 1530s to 1560s. The specific settlements reached in Switzerland, notably the Second Religious Peace of Kappel (1531) in turn required the region’s inhabitants to re-imagine their social, cultural and political lives for a world with multiple rival Christian confessions.

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD ON TERRORISM, IMMIGRANTS, AND SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS: A 1908 LETTER TO THECHICAGO RECORD HERALD

George Herbert Mead's advocacy of innovative social reform was not a distinct endeavor unrelated to his pragmatist social philosophy. In fact, the convergence of social philosophy and social reform is discernable in Mead's analysis of social settlements: an analysis that led him to conclude that settlements were indispensable social organizations for promoting cooperative living and civic progress within America's emerging industrial municipalities. For Mead, the settlement was the only social organization capable of understanding the immigrant's world and explaining that world to the nonimmigrant. In 1908, Mead wrote a letter to theChicago Record Heraldendorsing the work of social settlements. He composed the letter during an era when the violent actions of some political extremists (i.e., anarchists) seemed to encourage many native-born citizens to regard all immigrants as nascent terrorists and to treat organizations created to assist immigrants, such as settlements, with distrust and hostility.Most unfortunately, theChicago Record Heraldrefused to publish Mead's letter. This article describes the historical circumstances that prompted Mead to write a letter in defense of settlements; it then reprints the original letter in its entirety, with annotations; and, it concludes by briefly noting the letter's significance in relation to Mead's other writings about social settlements.

Settlements and Neighborhood Centers

Settlement houses are a prism though which the turbulent history of social work can be viewed. This article specifically examines the genesis of social settlements over the past century. It describes the early work of the settlements in spearheading social reform and building community solidarity. It explores the relationship between historic shifts in the political economy and the changed work of settlements, particularly the development of neighborhood houses. Finally, it emphasizes the dynamic interplay in the past twenty years between corporatization of not-for-profit culture, shrinking government funding, and the redefinition of settlement services.