Social Pragmatism Perspectives of John Dewey

Features of Social Pragmatism  Social conditions can be improved through mutual trust and cooperation;  Collaborative approaches to social policy are essential for sustainability;

Features Continued  Effective social policies and programs are the product of experimental methods based on assessment and evaluation (program outcomes); and  Strong social benefit and education programs are necessary for both social capital and democracy.

Features Continued  1) Structural,  2) Flexible, and  3) Evaluative

Dewey’s Notion of Social Capital  1) Pragmatism and meliorism,  2) Systematic experimental method and evaluation, and  3) Community collaboration and interdependency.

Meliorism  Social conditions can be improved under any circumstances.  It is always possible to make things better through community-based initiatives

Meliorism  Only meliorism can underlie the philosophy of action that allows for the possibility of reform and progress through human effort. Dewey writes that progress is not inevitable, it is up to men as individuals to bring it about. Change is going to occur anyway, and the problem is the control of change in a given direction.

Intelligence and Experimentation  Intelligence must be understood in terms of inquiry, experimental action, and its results. Inquiry, and the theory of inquiry, are among the most important tools at our disposal for learning to live together in ways that take into account the constraints of our environing conditions, as well as the full range of human needs and aspirations.

Experimental Method  Experimental method is not just messing around nor doing a little of this and a little of that in the hope that things will improve. On the contrary, it is the attempt to uncover and rectify our social ills

Continuous Social Planning  An immense difference divides the planned society from a continuously planning society. A social plan must be derived by cooperative evaluation. The attempt to plan social organization and association without the freest possible play of intelligence contradicts the very idea in social planning.

Associated Activity  Holistic or comprehensive approach to understanding social problems is the value of seeing individuals as part of an organic whole. Collaboration plays a crucial role in promoting public and civic interdependency in socially and economically healthy communities.

Associated Living Continued  Interdependence and interaction within communities is part of radical connection which is essential to the establishment of a democratic and socially responsible society. Associated or joint activity is a condition of the creation of a community.

Role of Education  Education plays a major role in this regard by helping individuals to learn to live more cooperatively and to appreciate their role in the social process that allows them to work together to accomplish tasks that cannot be accomplished individually.

Social Fabric  Jane Addams and Dewey saw networking as fundamental to effective communities in a process that involved a constant reweaving of the social fabric.  Both knew the value of understanding the needs of social service beneficiaries within the context of their social networks.

Social Fabric Continued  This person-in-environment perspective continues to play a prominent role in social work and social welfare education and practice.

Social Capital Process  Dewey argues that we may be drawn together to solve our own problems, but it is the togetherness, not the solution, that is the primary result.  In our attempts to build and further democratic community, the process of shared activity and values held in common is what matters.

Cooperative Problem Solving  Cooperative problem-solving efforts of an engaged and informed public. If a community fails to promote cooperative inquiries then apathy will follow with consequences that are detrimental to community development.  Moreover, for interaction and cooperation to result in a community, it must be shared action.

Development of All Society  An economy, a government, or a society, then, is not fully free unless it makes available to all its members the prerequisites of their growth - both their growth as individuals and the growth of the social groups through which they live.

Democracy  The success of the community depends upon cooperative efforts to seek the common good in a democratic way. In attempts to build and further democratic community, the process of developing shared activity and values held in common is what matters.

Democracy Continued  We need to foster the kind of long-term focus that sees beyond particular issues to the cultivation of dialogue and long-term cooperation.  We should continue to trust in community life in spite of occasional and even severe setbacks because democracy is a moral ideal.

Democracy Continued  Democracy is the faith that the process of experience is more important than any special result attained.

Democracy Continued  The foundation of a democratic community life is built upon how people interact and communicate. It is a form of moral association instituted in the relations and interactions of the community, establishing a mode of associated living or conjoint communicated experience.

Democracy Continued  Democracy must begin at home, and its home is in the neighborly community which is dependent on close personal interaction.  It is the family and community that are the primary agents of nurturing and forming strength of character and intelligence required of a viable democracy.

Discourse  Engaging in free, honest, and open discourse opens up new ways of approaching common problems and often leads to the discovery of shared interests and values. This promotes social inquiry that allows for an honest evaluation of ideas.  It is precisely when such a process is not followed that the prevailing ideas of the privileged become institutionalized, thereby weakening social capital.

Individual and Community Responsibilities  Both individuals and groups have a responsibility to be active participants in their local community. This is an important aspect of the human experience: To learn to be human is to develop through the give-and-take of communication an effective sense of being an individually distinctive member of a community; one who understands and appreciates its beliefs, desires and methods, and who contributes to human resources and values.