Social Constructionism, Assessment Example

I chose the SWOT analysis and the five faces of oppression because if feel these best allow me to assess the St. Vincent de Paul community as a whole from a conflict theory perspective. Conflict theories review the macro levels of society, regarding the institutions and structures. Functionalists may debate that the society is maintained in cohesion by its norms, values and common morality.  The conflict theories view the manner of how the society is maintained by coercion and power.  The coercion and power are applied toward the advantage of those who are in the dominant positions of power.  In the conflict perspective, the social challenges emerge from the continual conflict that is present between the social groups.  These conflicts are founded on the social class, ethnicity, race and gender (Guerrero, 2005).  In the conflict, the groups which wield power usually emerge victorious.  The system could be completely overhauled; however, there is a small likelihood that this would occur. Sections of the structure could be reformed, and those who are established in power would remain. Both the SWOT analysis and the five faces of oppression chart enable me to evaluate how St. Vincent de Paul is competitively, compared to other regions, in fairly balancing its conflict and distribution of power. The weaknesses in the SWOT analysis and the five faces of oppression model are that you don’t get to see the whole picture of what truly is going on. As we have learned in this class, change starts from the top. You don’t see what is going on at a higher level with these assessments and so you don’t really know the whole picture. There are multiple levels to every issue.

The five faces of oppression entail exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural dominance, and violence. The following will assess the Marion Food Bank and the St.  Vincent de Paul Society centers in Marion County and mid – Willamette Valley communities utilizing this method.

Exploitation entails a range in the difference between the wealth created by workers and the actual rate of compensation paid to employees. For the most part, the level of exploitation within the St. Vincent de Paul Society community is no more significant than what might be found in the average suburban or rural community with a medium homeless population. While the centers largely rely on donations and volunteers, they do pay their staff and incorporate a culture of community service and rewarding that service with recognition.

Marginalization refers to those individuals that have been excluded from the labor market, or who are unable to maintain steady employment.  St. Vincent de Paul represents the most significant nonprofit human services organization in Lane County, and it reportedly assists over 84,000 people year. As of 2013, Lane County has had a population of over 350,000 people (Society of St. Vincent De Paul, 2015). This means one fourth of the population could be considered marginalized. That is actually a very large number. Furthermore, since many of the residents of the Marion County and Mid- Willamette Valley do not have access to transportation, they are marginalized.  They are restricted to a lower social standing where they are forced to become dependent due to the lack of transportation.  Even when the members of the community have access to available transportation, due to the fact that they must accept low paid employment in order to demonstrate willingness to work  they still have to choose between what basic needs should be met and when.

Powerlessness entails the level of authority or autonomy shared across the working class. For example the ability to request higher wages or benefits or fair working conditions.  Despite the large number of individuals that need assistance from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul community help centers, the unemployment rate still remains below 7% in most areas and there are still many jobs available, which does suggest for those skilled enough to work there is enough work for individuals to not feel trapped in any one job. The jobs in the St. Vincent de Paul community are more rural and tend to be farm based or in some way related t the farm economy which makes them low wage jobs with little authority or power given to the individuals working them.

Cultural Dominance entails any one culture being dominant and making another culture feel inferior. While there are racial and cultural differences in the region the largest issues is socioeconomic, specifically economic class. Catholic faith plays a significant role in the community as well which promotes cultural equality.

Violence, can be both criminal or in reference to the violence implemented by police. While Portland as a whole is ranked as being safer than 6% of the cities in the United states, and having 1 act of violence per every 60 square miles, compared to the average act of violence per every 38.1 square miles throughout the United States, it is still difficult to assess how the militarization of the police has impacted quality of life for the lower class.

SWOT

SWOT analysis is broken down into strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats. The following will provide a SWOT analysis of the St. Vincent de Paul community.

Strength

The primary strength of this community can be seen with its emphasis on community service culture to combat disparity in the socioeconomic structure. This a strength primarily based on Catholic faith.

Weaknesses

One weakness of the community is their public transportation system. Clients don’t always have access to public transpiration and that makes it even harder to get to the food bank when there is limited hours and days due to the lack of volunteers. If a society is liberal with its freedoms they has the capacity of placing limitations on groups which restrict their liberty.

Opportunity

The community has the opportunity to significantly decline it poor working class through long-term investment in early childhood development. Statistically this reveals itself to be more beneficial economically than just providing assistance funded by donations. This would require changes in public policy.

Threats

Due to the fact that there is a very thin line in this community between the working class and impoverished, it’s very easy for the working class to slip into an impoverished economic class. This is the circumstance with the residents of the Marion County and Mid- Willamette Valley area.  The expectations of the society have become a form of oppression which causes them to enter into the categories of welfare dependency due to being forced into a condition of poverty.  In addition, rational choice comes into play when individuals must make a decision between paying for shelter, transportation and other basic needs.

References

Burr, V. (2015). Social constructionism. Routledge.

Hirshleifer, J. (2001). The dark side of the force: Economic foundations of conflict theory. Cambridge University Press.

Society of St. Vincent De Paul (2015). Society of St. Vincent De Paul Oregon Council ,Oregon, Retrieved November 13, 2015, from http://www.svdppdx.com/wordpress/

Guerrero, L. (2005). Sociology and the study of social problems. University of Warsaw.

Young, I. M. (2009). Five faces of oppression. Geographic thought: A praxis perspective, 55-71.