Opmerkingen over de machtspositie van het maatschappelijk opbouwwerk in grote steden

Samenvatting

The problem of coordination of welfare services is esp urgent in the Netherlands because of the verzuiling ('pillarization,' on a religious basis). In 1964 the central gov created the possibility to instit in large towns, agencies for consultation & cooperation in the welfare area. However, the agencies which came into being were actually, at least in part, a continuation of the so-called Armenraden (Council of Soc Agencies). At the time the latter had been engaged in some activities in this area of consultation & cooperation. The success of these attempts is doubtful. The question arises at this moment whether the activities of the new agencies will, in the near future, have a greater probability to suc,;eed. Some hyp's are developed to make this question more appropriate for empirical testing. This process can be subsumed, following Ronald Lippitt, under the concept 'planned change' (see SA 7702). Further it is said that, in studying the effect of help, whatever the form of it may be, a close examination of the soc positions of the change agent & the client system involved, will be indispensable. It is suggested that the power position of the change agent has to be stronger than that of the client system, at any rate with those aspects that are closely connected with the functioning of the SR between the 2 systems. Next it is pointed out that this thesis will in particular hold with the special type of help that is discussed, viz community org, for in this case the client system is generally very complex & the demand for help will seldom be initiated by the system itself. The thesis just mentioned has the implication that the power position of a co-ordinating agency has to be above a certain minimum in order to function effectively, a minimum which in its turn is determined by the power position of the client system. This gives rise to the hyp's that the probability of success of a co-ordinating agency (1) will be greater in small than in large towns, (2) will be greater in Ru areas than in towns, (3) will be greater in activities directed to new endeavours with the pop itself (eg, settlement work) rather than in activities directed towards co-ordinating the work of other agencies. Eventually, some suggestions are offered in order to enhance the power positions of the newly established agencies. AA.