In a society acutely invested in the ideal of the Protestant work ethic, people who turn to the government for help are seen, at best, as passive victims of uncontrollable circumstances and, at worst, as shiftless free riders living off the dime of upstanding taxpayers. Neither of these portrayals lends itself to conceptualizing help seekers as constrained yet viable political actors. Nonetheless, disadvantaged groups that cannot or do not exert power via traditional political avenues, such as voting, are capable of taking political action within local institutions that distribute critical resources (Soss 2000). If we ignore these potential political arenas, then we close off one possibility for more thoroughly understanding the everyday politics of those most vulnerable in our society.
This project will examine political participation within local bureaucratic institutions that are particularly embedded in the lives of marginalized people. These institutions supply essential goods and services such as housing assistance, child care vouchers, supplemental income and unemployment compensation. For people who are preoccupied with the fundamental task of maintaining a decent standard of living, such institutions can be crucial, not only as sites of subsistence, but as spaces that can stimulate a range of political exchanges, negotiations and actions which one can consider as the "politics of help seeking." There are three important questions at the heart of this research: How do racially and economically marginal individuals engage politically with the bureaucratic institutions that they turn to for help in meeting their daily needs? How are such efforts affected by individual characteristics as well as by the larger structural dynamics of bureaucratic and neighborhood contexts? What are the broader political consequences of citizen participation in these contexts both for individuals and for institutions?
The project will employ both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer these questions. On the qualitative end, the project will combine ethnographic observation of local bureaucracies with selected in-depth interviews of bureaucratic "clients" and workers. On the quantitative end, the project will conduct an original survey of low to moderate income white, black, and Latino Chicagoans as well as an organizational survey of select local bureaucracies. By exploring the politics of help seeking, the project seeks to gain theoretical insight into the interplay between agency and structure in poor communities. Although the targeted populations are numerical minorities, awareness of how and under what circumstances they enter into the political arena is imperative for policymakers concerned with ensuring that bureaucratic structures are not obstacles for people taking advantage of benefits provided to them by their government.
