Jo Anne Schneider

Reshaping ethnic and racial relations in Philadelphia : immigrants in a divided city

Maps Acknowledgments 1. Introduction Part I: The Citywide Context 2. The Political Economy of Philadelphia 3. The Effects of New Immigration on Social Categories and Human-Relations Institutions Part II: Life in the Neighborhoods 4. Neighborhood Structures and Community Organizations 5. Everyday Activities: Personal Ties and Structured Institutions 6. Focus Events Part III: Restructuring Diversity 7. Simultaneous Contradictions 8. Strategies for Action Notes Bibliography Index

Organizational Social Capital and Nonprofits

Social capital has become a popular concept in nonprofit studies but, given confusion over its definition, it is not as widely used as it could be in organizational analysis. In addition, much of the social capital research in nonprofit studies focuses either on the role of nonprofits in fostering civic engagement or on the ways that nonprofits build social capital for individuals associated with the organization. This article has a different focus. It examines the role of organizational social capital in nonprofits.

Connections and Disconnections Between Civic Engagement and Social Capital in Community-Based Nonprofits

Using case examples from Kenosha, Wisconsin, and metropolitan Washington, D.C., this article examines the relationship between social capital and civic engagement. Clarifying the differences and connections between the two concepts through comparing emergency-services organizations in the two communities, the article identifies three kinds of organizations where civic engagement and social capital function differently: citywide civic-engagement organizations, community-based civic institutions, and social-capital organizations. Analysis of the three organization types reveals that social capital and civic engagement are not always intertwined and that civic engagement through contributing to a nonprofit organization can either involve most groups in a locality or represent civic activity of one group within the city for its own members or another specific group. Findings suggest that participation in social-service agencies through volunteering or donations does not necessarily lead to greater civic engagement.

Trusting that of God in Everyone: Three Examples of Quaker-Based Social Service in Disadvantaged Communities

This article explores the concept of social capital through case studies of three Quaker based social service organizations engaged in work in disadvantaged communities. Social capital represents relationships among members of a community built on shared understandings, behaviors, and patterns of trust. Accessing the social capital resources of a community often depends on exhibiting the cultural capital of network members. The article illustrates two points: (a) successfully mobilizing the social capital of a religious body depends on the ability of religious-based organizations to maintain both network relations and appropriate cultural capital behaviors expected by members of the founding religion, and (b) sharing social capital can take several forms. Organizations can use religious-based resources to serve outsiders without expanding boundaries to include the communities served, to expand social capital by enculturating newcomers into their practices, or to change the cultural cues considered appropriate to access the social resources of the religious organization.

Comparing Stewardship Across Faith-Based Organizations:

Nonprofits theory on the role of organizational context focuses on generalizing principles such as neoinstitutionalism and institutional isomorphism. Organizational culture theory focuses on internal organizational culture, ignoring the larger community culture that influences nonprofit behavior. Relying on anthropological understandings of culture as comprising both the values and symbols of a community and its structures and practices, this article describes three support systems for faith-based nonprofits that come out of founding religious traditions. Using comparative case studies across 81 faith communities and FBOs in the United States, research suggests that systems are generalizable across religions and localities, but they come out of specific religious cultures adapted to fit the U.S. system.

Introduction to the Symposium: Faith-Based Organizations in Context

The literature on faith-based organizations (FBOs) includes few articles examining the larger religious context for faith-based nonprofits or the role of specific religions in FBO strategies. While articles on faith-based organizations or religious philanthropy are scattered throughout NVSQ, the last special issue on this topic (Milofsky & Cnaan Small Religious Nonprofits, Vol. 26, 1997) is more than 10 years old. This symposium brings together articles focusing on the policy and religious contexts that influence FBO behavior to understand the dynamic between government, communities, and their FBOs. As Milofsky (2008, p. 203) notes, organizations can only be understood “in relation to the communities in which they are embedded.” Most articles in this issue define FBOs as nonprofits founded by religious institutions with a primary function separate from worship. As such, we exclude congregations from our discussion, but some articles refer to FBOs attached to congregations or adjudicatories like a diocese such as Catholic Charities. This symposium came out of the Faith and Organizations Project, research fostered by FBO leaders outside of the policy context that influences most literature on this topic. A national research/practice initiative started in 2001 by a request from religious and FBO leaders from several faiths, the project focused on the relationship between faith communities and their nonprofits in a comparative framework. (see www.faithandorganizations.umd.edu). Originally, the symposium planned three articles from the Faith and Organizations Project by Schneider, Wittberg, and Sinha focusing on different aspects of the context for FBO action and supported by a literature review on FBOs. This symposium expands on that original concept by including Gocmen’s comparative article from Europe, which explores how the important relationship between church and state influences the role of FBOs in a particular national

Social Capital and Community Supportsfor Low Income Families

Abstract The Personal Responsibility, Work Opportunity and Medicaid Restructuring Act of 1996 changed welfare dramatically. This article explores the concept of social capital, illustrating how social and cultural capital are important factors that make the difference between persistent and temporary poverty. Through research in Wisconsin and Philadelphia, this article shows that social capital provides both barrier and bridge to families trying to survive in a changed policy context. However, just as programs focusing exclusively on work experience, developing human capital, or providing additional income fail to produce results for everyone on public assistance, programs concentrating exclusively on social or cultural capital are also doomed to failure.

Immigration and Ethnicity: The Integration of America's Newest Arrivals@@@Reshaping Ethnic and Racial Relations in Philadelphia: Immigrants in a Divided City@@@Blacks, Latinos, and Asians in Urban America: Status and Prospects for Politics and Activism

Authors from numerous disciplines assess the integration of recent immigrants in the context of their ethnic background and note the lessons that their adjustment, or lack thereof, provides for immigration policy. Topics include race and ethnic trends in U.S. immigration, incorporation of Hispanic and Asian immigrants, the comparative earnings of immigrant men, secondary immigration patterns of legalized aliens, and an overview of U.S. immigration policy.