Jack London

Jack London was one of the most prolific American writers in the early 20th century. He wrote novels, short stories, essays, plays and articles. London grew up in poverty and worked a number of different jobs, including such roles as oyster pirate, deputy patrolman for the California Fish Patrol, able seaman, coal heaver, laundry worker, coal stoker and gold prospector. He was a war correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War. When he was 18, he spent 30 days in jail for vagrancy. London was a member of the Socialist Party, until resigning from the party in 1916. His second wife Charmian Kittredge was also active in socialism and was a strong voice for feminism. The Londons eventually lived on a 1000 acre ranch in Glen Ellen, Sonoma County, California.

In 1891, the California Home for the Care and Training of the Feeble Minded was opened on a 1640-acre parcel. This institution is about 3 miles from the site of London’s ranch.

London published a short story entitled ‘The Drooling Ward.’ The narrator of the story is named Tom, and is one of the institution residents. Tom helps to care for some of the other residents, a not uncommon practice in residential institutions.

Several elements of the story would be particularly interesting to review from a Social Role Valorization perspective, such as interpersonal identification, language and labels, personal appearance, non-programmatic issues, relationship dynamics, and the desire for the ‘good things of life,’ among others.

A major thread of the story includes Tom along with three other residents running away from the institution, though in the end, they return after a day. One of the interesting elements of this part of the story describes an encounter that takes place while they are climbing a hill and crossing a ranch property. They run in to the ranch owner and his wife, and exchange a few words. Although the rancher’s name is given as Endicott in this scene, they clearly represent Jack and Charmian London.

A collection of London’s writings edited by Earle Labor (Penguin, 1994) includes a copy of a note written to Jack London in 1911 by Dr. William Dawson, medical superintendent of the Sonoma State Home: “I have read [‘The Drooling Ward’] with a great deal of interest and find it in greater part to be true to life. The ‘hero’ of the story I think is our old inmate, Newton Dole.’

A reading and analysis of London’s story could make an interesting lesson or assignment for a university class studying the history of human services.

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updated SRV website

Please see the following announcement from Elizabeth Neuville:

The International Association for SRV announces the launching of an important new resource for Social Role Valorization. 

http://www.socialrolevalorization.com/en/

Find updated information about workshops, training organizations, trainers, and activities. The website is live but still developing. Check back often for more resource materials, more news, and more ways to get involved with SRV.

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free articles to read from The SRV Journal

Interested in reading some articles from The SRV Journal?

Check out the following links:

http://www.srvip.org/journal_past_issues.php

Scroll down to download free copies of all the REVIEWS from past issues.

Scroll down also for copies of full issues.

 

http://www.srvip.org/about_articles.php

Download free articles from the The SRV Journal and elsewhere.

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SRV action implications

The SRV monograph includes a useful chart laying out categories of SRV action implications that can help us think about how to implement SRV, with an eye towards helping societally devalued people to have greater access to the ‘good things of life.’ The chart is on pages 103-105 in the 2014 edition of the SRV monograph (4th expanded edition). The content of the chart is also discussed at leadership level SRV workshops.

 

The chart is divided into action implication strategies on the level of:

1 an individual person

2 an individual’s primary social system (e.g., family or friends)

3 an individual’s secondary social system (e.g., workplace, gym, church)

4 the larger society

 

At each level, we can think of action implications related to:

• image enhancement (with an eye towards societally valued roles)

•  competency enhancement (with an eye towards societally valued roles)

 

The following chart does not replicate the full chart in the SRV monograph, but selectively shares a few examples in each category simply as a way to encourage further discussion on this implementation issue. I strongly encourage you to look at the full chart.

 

	IMAGE	COMPETENCY
PERSON	age appropriateness culturally valued analog	relevance and potency relationships forming helpful habits
PRIMARY SOCIAL SYSTEM	settings role models and imagery juxtaposition	role modeling related to competency enhancement
INTERMEDIATE SOCIAL SYSTEM	personal social integration and valued social participation model coherency	setting access demanding settings model coherency
LARGER SOCIETY	attitude shaping education funding patterns positive media portrayals public modeling of positive attitudes	laws public settings staff training funding of settings that facilitate competency enhancement

 

In light of this four-fold framework, what implementation examples and strategies can you think of? Please respond to this post and share:

• examples of SRV implementation, and let us know where they fall within this framework described above.

• examples of other potential implementation strategies within this framework. Draw on the 10 themes of and for SRV as well as the 42 PASSING ratings.

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video: ‘Nike Launches Flyease, Changing The Game For People With Disabilities’

Guy Caruso sent me a link to the following 5 minute video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nike-flyease-shoe-technology_55a3eec6e4b0b8145f731bde

It would be worth watching and analyzing from a Social Role Valorization and PASSING perspective, including in terms of personal possessions, language use, personal appearance, the typical image communicators, and juxtaposition with other people, among other SRV-relevant aspects.

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a cartoonist’s take on devaluation!

http://wronghands1.com/2015/06/12/designating-drivers/

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roles versus activity

An emphasis that often comes up in SRV training is to encourage those learning about and implementing SRV to think, plan and act in terms of roles, not just of activities. Social roles are clearly at the center of Social Role Valorization. Roles are a much richer construct than activities, and touch on a person’s identity, social status, appearance, relationships, activities, and much more. If we want to help societally devalued people to have greater access to the ‘good things of life,’ then SRV proposes that we help devalued people to get access to societally valued roles, hopefully many valued roles and big valued roles (i.e., with a broad bandwidth).

Researcher Christopher Bryan has done some interesting research relevant to this SRV point. He notes that we are much more likely to change the way we act when we think and speak in terms that reflect on the person (and thus, I would propose, on the person’s roles), not just on activity.

For example, Bryan proposes thinking and speaking in terms of voter (role), not just of voting (activity):

Indeed, recent research suggests that adults are more likely to perform socially approved behaviors (Bryan, Walton, Rogers, & Dweck, 2011) and less likely to perform socially disapproved behaviors (Bryan, Adams, & Monin, 2013) when subtle linguistic cues represent that behavior as reflective of the self. For instance, Bryan et al. (2011) found that adults who completed a survey that referred to voting with noun wording (e.g., “How important is it to you to be a voter”) the day before an election were more likely to then vote than adults who completed a survey using verb wording (e.g., “How important is it to you to vote”). This, Bryan and colleagues suggest, is because the noun condition represents voting as a way to claim the identity “voter.”

‘Helping’ Versus ‘Being a Helper’: Invoking the Self to Increase Helping in Young Children, p. 1836

We don’t just vote, we are voters. Note that Bryan further posits that thinking and speaking in terms of roles will make it more likely that people will act in societally valued ways and less likely that they will act in socially devalued ways.

 

Bryan and colleagues also point out that this emphasis on role, rather than simply activity, can influence how we perceive others, another SRV relevant point:

a large volume of past theory and research indicating that noun wording, more than verb wording, conveys that a behavior reflects a person’s essential character—something enduring and fundamental about the target (for an in-depth review, see Gelman, Hollander, Star, & Heyman, 2000; see also Bryan et al., 2011; Bryan et al., 2013; Carnaghi et al., 2008; Cimpian, Arce, Markman, & Dweck, 2007; Gelman & Heyman, 1999; Markman, 1989; Walton & Banaji, 2004). Even preschool-aged children are sensitive to this difference in wording, for instance, in how they perceive other children (Gelman & Heyman, 1999) and in how they react to praise of their own behavior (Cimpian et al., 2007). Moreover, when noun wording describes a potential future behavior (something one could do), as in the present research, it can influence whether people choose to perform that behavior (Bryan et al., 2011). It turns a decision about whether to engage in a behavior (e.g., “to help”) into a more meaningful question about whether to be a kind of person (e.g., “a helper”)

 ‘Helping’ Versus ‘Being a Helper’: Invoking the Self to Increase Helping in Young Children, p. 183

 

Bryan’s work is another example of contemporary research that buttresses SRV theory and implementation, and may also provide insights that help us to extend our understanding of SRV, how to teach and implement it.

For further reading and study:

• “Helping” Versus “Being a Helper”: Invoking the Self to Increase Helping in Young Children” by Christopher J. Bryan, Allison Master, Gregory M. Walton, in Child Development, 85(5): 1836–1842 (September/October 2014)

 

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July 2015 issue of The SRV Journal

The new SRV Journal is out and in the mail! PDF versions will be emailed out this week as well. Still time to subscribe if you aren’t already. This issue includes articles and columns by Rebekah Hutchinson, Tom Doody, Ray Lemay, Thomas Malcomson, Susan Thomas, Joe Osburn and myself.

Marc Tumeinski

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blog post: ‘Is community integration understood by those charged with facilitating it?’

Dr. Jeff McNair from CalBaptist posted on his blog recently on the following question: Is community integration understood by those charged with facilitating it? Jeff is familiar with SRV and has sponsored an SRV workshop in California. See some previous posts on our blog here.

His incisive post is worth reading and considering, particularly in light of SRV teaching around personal social integration and valued social and societal participation. SRV teaching emphasizes that personal social integration and valued participation cannot be legislated or enforced but must ultimately be welcomed by people with valued social status.

His post is also relevant to consider from the perspective of the PASSING tool and assessment process, including the inquiry process (interviewing a human service organization) and the time spent visiting and observing services from an SRV framework.

McNair also touches on the idea of the culturally valued analog, by asking ‘Where would you go in the community to find opportunities for friendships and relationships?’

Note also his focus on the role domain of ‘cultus/values’ which Wolfensberger described in the SRV monograph (p. 30, A brief introduction to Social Role Valorization, Wolfensberger, Training Institute for Human Service Planning, Leadership and Change Agentry, 2004). In this case, McNair is looking at local churches in terms of the possibility of personal social integration and valued social participation; and I would add, in terms also of valued roles.

Marc Tumeinski

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transporting prisoners

Some of the wounds resulting from social devaluation (as described by SRV) include being cast into the devalued role of menace and/or subhuman, as well as distantiation. A recent commentary in the 14 June 2015 NY Times Magazine provides a first-person account of a typical practice of prisoner transport. The writer comments about being driven around in prison transport vans: “Through the window I saw how easily I had disappeared to the rest of the world.”

This article could be used as the basis for a student assignment or discussion, or a small group exercise in an SRV or SRV-related training. This video advertisement for prison transport vans might also be used. Note the quick reference in the video ad to seatbelts as an optional feature. What message does this communicate about prisoners, to guards and to prisoners themselves?

The same company also makes animal transport vans as described in this video. Consider that image juxtaposition. You might ask students and learners to watch both videos and look for similarities.

Marc Tumeinski

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