Health Services 572 • Community Development for Health

Winter Quarter 2007

Readings Questions Due Weekly

We want to motivate you to do the readings. Here is how it will work this year: Each week, we will have two students lead the readings discussion together. This "readings team" will be responsible for thinking of questions to stimulate an interesting dialogue on the assigned readings. Below are some questions you could use, that we have used in the past in this class.

Also, each Wednesday, in preparation for the discussion, each student should prepare a short essay (no more than two pages) reflecting on the readings. Some components of this essay could include: 1) areas where the readings pertain to your study organization or some organizational experience you've had; 2) areas where the authors of the articles or chapters you're reading appear to agree or disagree; 3) current events that pertain to the readings or 4) answers to the provided questions, below.

General Instructions: We're looking for short, crisp, dense, smart essays. Think of this as doing your exams as you go along, instead of having midterms or a final!

Click on a week's reading assignment to link to pertinent questions (below)

Reading Questions due January 10

Reading Questions due February 14

Reading Questions due January 17

Reading Questions due February 21

Reading Questions due January 24

Reading Questions
due February 28

Reading Questions due January 31

Reading Questions
due March 7

Reading Questions due February 7

 

Reading Questions due January 10
Readings / Top of page

1. Contrast community with mass society (Lyon article).

2. Minkler (Introduction): Is your world view one of striving for social justice or market justice? Using Minkler's framework, identify a health-related problem showing how the social justice crowd and the market justice folks would take different approaches to crafting a solution.

3. Minkler (Part I, Chapter 2): "In order to organize a community or to effect change in a community, you must be able to speak the language that the locals speak.(e.g. Spanish in a barrio in Los Angeles.)" Would Minkler agree? Why? Do you agree? Why?

4. Minkler (Part I, Chapter 3): Why have "new social movements" failed to meet the material needs of the most disadvantaged? Think of an example from your experience.

5. Minkler (Part I, Chapter 4): Thinking of the elements of community (historicity, identity, mutuality, plurality, autonomy, participation, and integration) describe an event that you know of in these terms (as per the example Walter uses in this chapter.)

6. Klinenberg (Prologue & intro) says his book is an autopsy of the social conditions that led to the heat wave deaths in Chicago in 1995. What factors does he suggest led to the heat-related deaths, and why should any of this matter to students in a community development for health class?

7. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

Reading Questions due January 17
Readings / Top of page

  1. Geiger: COPC allows workers in a clinical setting to attack population health issues. The basic approach is to notice what is behind the illnesses of groups of patients, and then go upstream and work on causes, all the while continuing to care for patients one-by-one. How could this approach lead to community development as Geiger argrues?

  2. Minkler (Part II, Chapter 5): How do the definitions of community offered by Labonte compare to those of Lyon from last week, and to your own definitions? How would you describe the professional' role in the nutcracker? What's the difference between community-based work and community development work?

  3. Minkler (Part II, Chapter 6): If Pilisuk, et al., made a list of DOs and DON'Ts for people like us interested in working with the "grassroots," what might be on the lists? List three things on each list....and go ahead and have an opinion if you agree with any or all of the items.

  4. Minkler (Part II, Chapter 7): What are the ethical dilemmas facing community organizers (say something about each)? What is the publicity test of ethics, and have you ever used it (how?)? What are the dangers in Alinsky's recommendation to appeal to self interest in community organizing?

  5. Klinenberg (Chapter 1): Why did so many Chicago heat wave victims live and die alone? Is this the responsibility of individuals and families, or is there something government (public health) could or should have done?

  6. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

Reading Questions due January 24
Readings / Top of page

  1. Which four of McIntosh’s white privilege conditions resonated most closely with your own experience if you're a white person? If you're not, have you noticed being deprived of these privileges? Would you add anything to the list?

  2. Minkler (Part V, Chapter 13): By the authors own admission, a lot of concepts and techniques discussed in this chapter can apply to "education, participation, and capacity building in community organizing" with any group. What concepts and techniques in the chapter are unique (and why) to working with women of color?

  3. Minkler (Part V, Chapter 14): Why do you suppose tobacco control was identified by the professionals as a significant need in Contra Costa County, while the residents identified substance abuse and gang violence as the top priorities? What would you say were three of the most important changes the health department had to adopt to engage in an authentic community process?

  4. Minkler (Part V, Chapter 15): On what three theories did TSOP rely to organize in the Tenderloin District in San Francisco? In Chapter 7, we are told the four most important words in community organizing may be, "refreshments will be served." How was that lesson applied (or not) in this case? What's wrong with direct service programs?

  5. Klinenberg (Chapter 2): What were the demographic characteristics of those who died? What were the social, spatial and geographic characteristics? What are the implications of these for variability in the death rate across the city?

  6. The Ture and Hamilton piece was written in the 1960s. Is it out-dated or does it still hold true? Say a few words in defense of your viewpoint.

  7. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

Reading Questions due January 31
Readings / Top of page

  1. The Tragedy of the Commons, Garrett Hardin: Think of a "tragedy of the commons" in the health arena. State whether an "appeal to individual conscience" would be a solution.

  2. Minkler (Part III, Chapter 8): Take one of the three lists concerning health community "criteria" (see pages 144, 145, and 146.) Then chose three items from one of the lists and tell us how you would gather information in that topic area for your study organization. Draw on the suggestions for assessments discussed in the chapter.

  3. Minkler (Part III, Chapter 9): What's the difference between being a consumer, a client and a citizen? Choose a distressed locality you know and name some of its primary, secondary and potential resources/assets.

  4. Klinenberg (Chapter 3): Why did Clark Staten issue a press release about the heat wave rather than contact the mayor's office or the department of public health? Why did the Fire Department fail to respond to the magnitude of the crisis in a timely way? Why did the public health department respond so slowly? Whose responsibility was all this?

  5. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

Reading Questions due February 7
Readings / Top of page

  1. What is Putnam's definition of social capital? Name some organizations or efforts that contribute to social capital in Seattle.

  2. Minkler (Part III, Chapter 10-Lee Staples): What, in your own words, is "organizational mileage?" Give an example where your study organization has made some organizational mileage, or missed an opportunity to make organizational mileage.

  3. Minkler (Part IV, Chapter 11-Stall & Stoecker): In a nutshell, describe the difference(s) the authors allege distinguish a "male organizing model" from a "female" one. Do you have experience with one more than the other? Which sounds like more fun? What would the liminal space be between the two?

  4. Minkler (Part IV, Chapter 12): Quickly define or describe Paulo Freiri's educational empowerment approach, protection-motivation theory, and praxis. What is Freiri's view on the purpose of education? How is ASAP different from other youth intervention programs if at all?

  5. Klinenberg (Chapter 4): Why was it important to Mayor Daley to so carefully manage the public relations of the heat wave disaster? How did the conflict between Daley and the Chief Medical Examiner (Donoghue) manifest itself and how was it resolved? When have you noticed PR goals interfering with the ability to minimize casualties in a disaster?

  6. Cottrell: Cottrell says "It is quite possible that a very different cultural context would require a different set of conditions for effective collective action. It would be interesting and useful for clarifying ideas about competence as here conceived to analyze the requirements for community competence under an authoritarian system." Can you think of a characteristic of community competence that might emerge in an authoritarian system? In which category would it fall?

  7. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

Reading Questions due February 14
Readings / Top of page

  1. Minkler (Part IX, Chapter 23): Name three problems/needs/issues that your study organization is interested in and state how they are newsworthy or could be presented as newsworthy.

  2. Minkler (Part VII, Chapter 18, Herbert on the internet): In your study community/organization, give examples of 1) where the Internet might be useful, and 2) where it might not be useful or might even set you back in terms of building community. Draw on the points made by Herbert in this chapter.

  3. Minkler (Part VII, Chapter 19, McDonald on the arts): McDonald et al state that the arts (literature, music, video, painting, photography) are "powerful tools for community organizing" and add that "humor and fun (are) important components of our practice." The arts can be redemptive and restorative, as "artistic imagery taps into our visceral forms of knowing and reacting to the world." Describe an example of the use of artistic expression to organize communities either in your study organization or in American history, and explain how it advanced the cause.

  4. Minkler (Part IX, Chapter 22, Blackwell on policy):
    It would seem that many community organizing efforts are aimed at changing or enacting policy (i.e., "those laws, regulations, formal, and informal rules and understandings that are adopted on a collective basis to guide individual and collective behavior," according to Schmid 1995 AJPH 85:9, 1207-11). Choose an issue (environmental, say). What would be the *DOWN* side of organizing around a public policy demand? What would be an alternative to a policy change that could accomplish your goal?

  5. Klinenberg chapter 5: How did the Chicago news media handle the heat wave story, and how did it change over time? What were the media's roles in framing the public's view of the disaster? What would be an appropriate role for public health in framing the story for the media?

  6. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

Reading Questions due February 21
Readings / Top of page

  1. Minkler (Part VIII, Chapter 20): What is the difference between traditional evaluation methods and empowerment evaluation? When might traditional evaluation be more effective than empowerment evaluation, and also the reverse?

  2. Minkler (Part VIII, Chapter 21): Does the governance of your study organization achieve parity, inclusion and representation? How?

  3. (Klinenberg, Conclusion chapter): Klinenberg lists several "lessons learned" from his social autopsy of the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995. Are there any you would add?

  4. Klinenberg also says the growing trend toward corporate takeover of America's newspapers leads to phenomena like the Chicago Tribune's 1999 editorial declaring the expenditures to implement the Extreme Weather Operations Plan were "wasteful of taxpayer dollars." Instead of using city employees to reach out to vulnerable, isolated people, the newspaper suggested church and community organizations should have done the job. Have you seen any recent examples of downsizing the public sector in favor of increasing the burden on volunteers?

  5. One of Klinenberg's premises is that "no severe weather plan can adequately compensate for the extreme vulnerability that we collectively produce in other domains." (p. 229). What is he talking about?

  6. In Stringfellow Barr's essay on dialogue, how did he describe the difference between Thrasymachus' and Socrates' approach to dialogue?

  7. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

Reading Questions due February 28
Readings / Top of page

  1. Minkler (Part VI, Chapter 16): What is a coalition and what characteristics are associated with successful coalitions? What is the open systems framework? What might George W. Bush's 2003 Iraq war "Coalition of the Willing" have learned from this chapter? Using Appendix 3, diagnose a coalition of which you have been a part.

  2. Minkler (Part VI, Chapter 17): A striking feature of NYCCELP is that the coalition eschewed formalizing its organizational structure. Using the term as it is used in the article, would you say your study organization is formal or informal? Given what it (your study organization) is (formal or informal), what might be gained if it were structured in the opposite way?

  3. From Norden's Alinsky interview: Describe Saul Alinsky's first experience as an organizer. How did he justify it? How did Alinsky avoid being ruined by Joseph McCarthy's House UnAmerican Activities Committee? What was your favorite Alinsky organizing escapade, and why?

  4. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

Reading Questions due March 7
Readings / Top of page

  1. Fisher (Getting to Yes): Select a public issue that is currently controversial (e.g., salmon habitat, light rail, sweatshop labor). Describe the competing parties' interests and their positions. Suggest some ways in which interests might overlap in places to allow the parties to "get to yes."

  2. Kroll: The "Guide to Conducting Focus Group Research" provides step-by-step instructions for conducting focus groups.

    Say you're on the faculty at the UW School of Public Health and you get a grant to reduce pediatric asthma visits to the ER by helping parents manage their kids' asthma better. You want to do focus groups to help you pick some action strategies to accomplish this goal:

    • How would you organize the groups (around what homogeneous identity)?
    • What questions (and sub-questions or prompts) would you ask?

  3. Chong: After completing this reading, how would you answer the question: "How do rational individuals decide whether to participate in social movements?"

  4. What is wrong with the Rosa Parks legend as it is commonly retold, and how does that encourage you (or not) to become an activist?

  5. Loeb: Loeb writes about how difficult it is to "do" democracy. Do you agree? Why?

  6. Volunteerism: Name a volunteering fact from the Points of Light handout that surprised you.

  7. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

 

Questions for optional readings:

  1. Can private schools help children develop the "public virtues" described in Parker's article? Why or why not?

  2. What does Ruby Payne believe is the key motivator for learning for students from generational poverty? Did you buy her "hidden rules" by class division?

  3. Give an example of a "stalemate" as Kemmis uses the word. Draw on your experience in your study community/organization or from a community where you have lived. How does Kemmis use the term "next American frontier?"

  4. Using Kawachi and Kennedy, explain why disparity in income within societies, not just low income, may be associated with poorer health outcomes.

  5. When will we know we have genuine equality for blacks (Lebowitz)? (Hint: how many Clarence Thomases is enough?)

  6. Joe Flower refers to ways of measuring wealth beyond "economic capital." Name three ways and say something about them.

  7. Name a building in Seattle that "dishonors the public realm," and say why you chose it (Kunstler).

  8. I always thought Rosa Parks was just a tired black cleaning lady who one day up and decided she just plumb wasn’t going to move to the back of the bus and caused a ruckus that led to a political movement through the miracle of timing and luck. Correct me? (Garrow) Also, how did Martin Luther King emerge as a leader in this whole thing?

  9. Do you think Condi Rice and Colin Powell are "captive leaders" as Ture and Hamilton use the term? Why or why not?

  10. Does either color or sex determine the level and frequency of medical care that individual patients receive? (Satell)

  11. Will Social Security be available to you when you retire?

  12. What is your Thomas-Kilman conflict mode?

  13. Thinking back to the Kemmis articles and the Fisher and Ury piece, do you think they would agree with the approach posed by Bobo? What are the similarities? What are the contrasts?

  14. What is the difference between a problem and an issue?

  15. Compare and contrast the measures of sustainability proposed by Wendell Berry and those proposed by the Northwest Policy Center. Name three areas where the lists agree. Are there any areas where the lists disagree? (You'll find Berry's criteria on pages 30-31.)

  16. What are three things that characterize "healthy communities?" Why?

  17. Rogers: Where did the funding for COPS come from? What was the role of women in COPS?

  18. In looking at the Open Space Technology approach to running an idea-generating meting, describe the fundamental difference(s) between this and nominal group technique. Note: Delbecq's NGT reading is just background to support the nominal group technique meetings we'll demonstrate in class. It might serve as a handy reference in case you organize one with a group. To answer this question, just skim Delbecq's reading.

  19. Meredith Minkler says community organization is one of the oldest tools within the helping professions (dating to the late 1800s), and that real organizing requires increasing community competence (about which we've read earlier this quarter). She refers to (but does not fully embrace) Rothman's three distinct models of community organization practice--locality development, social planning and social action. One principle is to "starting where the people are," by helping communities select their own goals. Goals should be winnable and specific (as we learned from Alinsky). Let's say we are working with a community to address one of the determinants of health (social class, environment, education, etc.) which are affecting its health. Select one of these determinants, and deconstruct it (per her "issue selection" notes on p. 272) into problems and issues. Define the problem, then propose some winnable, simple and specific issues for that determinant that meet her criteria for a "good issue."

  20. Leonard Duhl is another one of the leaders in the "healthy communities movement" (many of whom publish in the National Civic Review). He speaks of the role of social entrepreneurs as using traditional business entrepreneurial skills to work on issues related to the common good of communities. Do you think Duhl would view Saul Alinsky as a "social entrepreneur" according to the Duhl definition? Why or why not?

  21. Chong: Was the crash of the Sept 11 flight in Pennsylvania an example of the Prisoner’s Dilemma or an Assurance Game? Why?

  22. Stephen Fawcett lays out ten values to guide research based in communities. What did you think of this observation that research usually addresses downstream targets and low income families, and that institutions and people with power can avoid being researched (p. 624). Can you think of a research project, real or imagined, that meets Fawcett’s ten values and might turn the tables by researching institutions or populations of powerful people.

  23. In your own words, compare and contrast Rossi’s three kinds of evaluation research: policy evaluation, diagnostic program evaluation, and impact and efficiency evaluation.

  24. Some reviewers have lamented Rossi’s de-emphasis of impact evaluation research. Whose side do you take in the debate?

  25. What did Israel, et al. find in their Detroit area study to be the predictors of perceived control or empowerment?

  26. Does Mechanic feel income inequality explains health anymore than poverty alone? What are his supporting arguments? Do you agree?

  27. David Coburn writes at length(!) about what he calls "neo-liberal political doctrines" which promote globalized, market-dominated economies that have the effect of creating extreme income inequalities. He seems irked that some of his fellow academics spend time exploring the mechanism of "the possible social/psycho-biological mechanisms" that explain how social factors are tied to health, rather than focusing on the causes of inequality itself. He says inequality is an inherent by-product of capitalist market economies. "The more market-oriented the regime the greater the income inequality," he says, and the lower the health status of the population. What evidence does he provide to back up this assertion? Do you buy this?

  28. What do you conclude from the Goeppinger/Baglioni article about:
    • --the relationship between community competence and income?
    • --the relationship between individual competence and community competence?

  29. Alinsky, "Rules for Radicals:" What is Alinsky’s position on honoring the poor?

  30. Loeb: Both Loeb and Greider write about how difficult it is to "do" democracy. Who is most encouraging to you? Why?

  31. Levy: What three things did La Causa boycott?

  32. Greider, "Class Conflict"--What effect does the tax code have on citizens’ attempts at political influence?

  33. What three things did La Causa boycott? (Levy reading)

  34. Which reading did you enjoy most or find the most useful? Why?

Return to HServ 572