Spatial and Cultural Dimensions of Social Service Access in Majority Black Neighborhoods

Reforms to the U.S. welfare system over the past 25 years have made the urban poor increasingly dependent on the work of local social service providers. Such organizations, however, are often not located in disadvantaged neighborhoods, particularly those with a high proportion of Black residents. This dissertation explores the implications of these spatial disparities in social service access through a comparative study of two majority Black neighborhoods in Houston, Texas which are demographically similar but have different levels of organizational infrastructure. Drawing on 15 months of ethnographic observation, 60 interviews with organization members and service recipients, and data from the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, I explore how the presence of local social service organizations shapes both the provision and receipt of assistance in disadvantaged neighborhoods. In doing so, I provide a new model for understanding social service access which highlights both the structural and cultural barriers residents face in accessing the social safety net. In particular, I highlight the cultural processes shaping how residents view the social safety net and the cultural repertoires they draw upon to express agency in meeting their material needs. I find that local social service providers contribute to neighborhood life in ways that far exceed the sum of the programs and services they offer by fostering cultural processes like perceived neighborhood collective efficacy. Assessments of the accessibility of local organizations are also shaped by another cultural process, stigmatization, as racialized and gendered stereotypes about welfare recipients continue to inform how residents perceive the sufficiency of the social safety net. In response to these cultural barriers, I highlight two cultural repertoires that residents draw upon to destigmatize receiving assistance: getting out and giving back. The presence of local organizations imbues residents with agency to enact these repertoires. I conclude by developing a conceptual model for understanding how structural and cultural barriers to assistance intersect, which offers a more complex picture of the consequences of racial disparities in social service access. I conclude that the responsibility of caring for the urban poor in U.S. society ultimately falls upon the poor themselves.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Social Sciences

Grantor

Rice University

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Bolger, Daniel

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ecklund, Elaine

• Urban Poverty
• Welfare
• Ethnography
• Race
• Culture
• Religion

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1911/113305

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.rice.edu:1911/113305