Before class on Monday, I would like you to reflect on the first two reading assignments for our course (this past Wednesday’s and this upcoming Monday’s). First, in your own words, describe what a participant-observer study is. What are the limitations of this kind of study? What are we able to learn by conducting such research? Explain how Liebow’s study illustrates this kind of methodology. How does his position and identity as a researcher shape his study?
Second, how does Liebow describe the physical spaces of the shelter in the introduction to his book? How do these spaces impact the women who use them for shelter?
Third, pick one of the first three chapters (“Day by Day,” “Work and Jobs,” and “Family”) that you thought was the most interesting and summarize the main point of it. What was significant for your about this chapter? Identify a compelling passage, anecdote, or moment in this chapter and explain to the rest of class why it resonated with you. How does it relate to the main purpose of Liebow’s study?
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Initial Reflection Response
ReplyDelete1.
Participant-observer study is a research strategy allowing for self-reflexive learning through extended close interaction and intimate knowledge. The participant-observer strategy is somewhat restricted to social contexts and groups and by the subjects' allowance to the researcher. Likewise, Liebow closely studied the lives and interactions of homeless women, and the women decided whether to participate and how much. As an observer, Liebow collects facts and takes notes; Liebow also reflects on his notes and compares them to his own privileged positionality. As a particpant-observer study, Tell Them Who I Am may be empathetic, censored, questioning, and even assumptive as Liebow reports his notes.
2.
Liebow sketches shelter life with The Refuge floorplan: dotted lines, temporary cubbies and cots. The double doors at 7:00 p.m. open and at 7:00 a.m. close; a woman's safe sleep is set, temporary as her cot. The Refuge allows a woman to stay parts in cubbies on a timer. She enters the permeable at 7:00 a.m when the shelter and cots are, once again, made up. Liebow shows how the women daily realize impermanence. He also sees the real walls of the sketch. Shelters have constraints and rules. They take in few women; they have strict schedules; they run by few hands. The shelters give a sense of home, but only a sense: a cot can resemble a bed. The shelters sustain the women enough to be still hungry and are quiet enough for their sleep to be restless.
3.
"Work and Jobs" considered the membership of homeless women in society through work. Liebow provides insight on this relationship on page 78: "The women value work over and above its economic rewards for much the same reasons other people do—because it is through work that we engage in the world and become a part of it, and through work that we lay claim to membership in a larger community and, in getting paid for our work, have the membership confirmed by others."
I can make many connections to this chapter's discussion of the social meaning of work for homeless women. My economics class readings have similarly shown that economics is not simply about the transaction of good for good, it is about social transaction. Economics is a significant factor in social relationships, and in constructing a social identity: class structures, production (work) and, importantly, consumption. The latter is particularly significant in our society, and significant to my interests in media and advertising: through consumption that we collect meaning and construct an identity from the symbols we choose. (Consumption can include media, products, information, etc.) To some degree, homeless women may be kept from this construction of identity for lack of economic resources and lack of social engagement.
Likewise, their few possessions are charged with meaning: the remains of a previously constructed identity. This further social detachment, in addition to family and work, is yet another example for Liebow of how homeless women are personally, culturally, and institutionally isolated from society
A participant observer study is a study where the researcher tries to involve him or herself in the lives of those the researcher is studying. The objective is to be able to note who the subjects are and how the subjects arrived to their current point in time. In such studies the researchers is the filter in a sense of the study. The researcher controls what is published and can include some of their prejudices. The limitations that accompany a participant observer study are the problems of identifying with the subjects. Liebow demonstrates and participant observer methodology by coming into the shelter life and diving into discovering the intimate details of the women’s lives. Liebow’s study is shaped by how much the women allow him to participate along with how much the women contribute. He helps the women out by driving them around town to the varies places they receive assistance. Liebow tries not to be completely involved but also documents most of the women’s stories while offering some of his own personal opinion.
ReplyDeleteLiebow categorizes each shelter first by type and then by historical background. He describes how the Refuge works and brings in the introduction of how night shelters function. Liebow states the most of the shelters are in walking distance of the Richman County Office and filled with some paid staff but are complied of mainly volunteers. The shelters, be they day or night shelters, are usually for a temporary time, with temporary sleeping situations. Most of what the shelters can provide is limited in regards to space, storage and time. Usually the shelters are only open certain times of the year, such as the Refuge, or certain times within the day. The spaces impact the women who rely on shelter by giving the women a sense of home and family, but also provide the women with uncertainty. Every day the women have to wake early to leave the shelter having to roam the streets until they have to attend work or until the day shelter opens. Despite the fact the women have to vacate the shelter at times, the shelter also having a shelter so small brings a family aspect into the lives of these women. They have others to whom they can share stories and become friends with, if they can get along.
“Family” explored the relationship of homelessness and family ties. The main point emphasized is that basically most women are homeless, except certain situations, because they either have no family left, the family abandoned them, or the women is part of a broken family. Liebow states his point on page 81 “Homeless women had not always been homeless and familyless women had not always been familyless.”
To be able to identify with this chapter had a difficult familiarity. Many women that I encounter or counsel at Gateway Battered Women Services have problems with their family. To have a family is mainly what keeps my clients alive, especially if my client has children. For some of my clients not having a family to support her decision can impact her for the worse. Therefore, I know that being homeless and not having a family can greatly impact the will and initiative to bring one’s self out of homelessness.
Reading of the passage of Velma on page 104, reminded me of a client I had who encountered great lengths to reach the Gateway offices and find shelter. The client came to me during a court arraignment distressed and slightly deranged. Her husband had lead a completely second life without her knowledge. My client was like Velma; her family did not believe her when she told them about what her husband had been doing and sort of abandoned her and her children. My client went back home and I haven’t heard from her since but I am hoping she did not end up as Velma did and that she along with her children is safe.
Velma’s story relates to Liebow’s study by the simple fact that through enduring circumstances she became homeless. Liebow is studying why and how a woman becomes homeless and what each woman has to endure to try to bring herself out of homelessness.
Here's the first part of Brooke's comment:
ReplyDeleteIn a participant observer study, the researcher conducts ethnographic research by going into the field and observing a person or group of people which he/she is in contact with. Through this type of study, one aims to obtain qualitative research. One of the limitations of this kind of research is that the researcher can influence and change the actions of the people that they are observing. Also, the researcher may produce biased results depending on their relationship with the participants. For example, in “Tell Them Who I Am” the women may act differently in front of Elliot Liebow because he is a young man. Their actions range from flirting with him, to making sexual comments in front of him, to simply avoiding him. The Director notes that “My instinct is that Elliot was a catalyst for the woman's comments about sex”(44). However, by conducting this kind of research the researcher is able to get a detailed and personal look at the lives they are trying to study. From their results, one can try to generalize their findings to the larger population.
At the beginning of this book, Elliot describes in detail the different shelters one by one. He explains that they each have their own set ups, restrictions, policies/rules, and ways of maintaining order. While some simply provide a place for the women to stay, others see it as their goal to help the women out of homelessness. The shelters provide a safe place for the women to live but they are in no means a stress free zone. The women find difficulty in storing their belongings, obtaining jobs (because they have no real address or phone number), and ultimately running their lives from these make shift places. They are only open for specific hours during the day or night, so women have to find a way to occupy the rest of their time either by jobs, public facilities such as the library, or simply roaming the streets. It is important to note that some of the shelters are stricter than others and that they vary in size and availability throughout the year which puts even further stress on the women living in them.
Here's part two of Brooke's comment:
ReplyDeleteI found the “Family” chapter of this reading to be particularly interesting. This chapter explains how many women believe that they are not simply homeless, but familyless. In other words, if they had or were more connected to their family, they may not be homeless. Elliot described the woman's different relationships with their parents, children, spouses or other men, as well as further removed family members. The aspect that really struck me was the woman's relationships with their children. One woman, Grace, became homeless when her and her husband divorced and he won the rights to both their house and their children. This really struck me because when my parents divorced, my father gained custody of me and my brother as well as our house. My mom stayed with friends for a while and it has occurred to me that if she didn't have these friends or if she was in a worse financial state, it is possible she could have become homeless (possibly to stubborn to ask m
y dad for help). Grace never admitted to her family that she was homeless. She tried to be a mother-at-a-distance. She lost her relationships with her three older daughters but tried her best to keep the connections with her too youngest children who were still “living in her house”. Elliot explains that “Grown children often gave emotional support to their homeless mothers but never, to my knowledge, any significant financial or other material support”(92). This statement really resonated with me because while I love my mother, I don't know if I will ever help provide for her financially. I don't know if it's because I'm angry with her, I expect more of her as an adult, or I just don't see it as my responsibility. But when I read this passage, I found myself siding with the homeless women. I wanted their families to do more for them, maybe not the children but just the families in general. Many times, it wasn't really the woman's fault for being homeless but in rough times I believe family members need to pull together to help one another out. I think Elliot wanted to gain sympathy for the homeless women, but he also wanted to make them relatable to his readers. By providing many different family dynamic examples, the readers are likely to be able to relate to at least one of them, sympathize with them, and realize that many of us could end up in the same situations.
A participant observer study requires the researcher to be almost fully involved in the community, society, or culmination of people that are being studied. Some limitations in this type of study include having a one-sided point of view from the people the researcher engages with, and trying to relate to research subjects when the researcher is not in the same situation. Liebow’s study illustrates this kind of methodology because he spent most of his time at the homeless shelter studying the lives of homeless women. Liebow is a “participant observer” because he commented these women’s lives not as a social scientist, but as a concerned volunteer of the homeless society. This position allows Liebow to acquire true testimony from the women by noting their stories as a mere observer in a given conversation. The women also might be more inclined to share their stories with Liebow as a researcher because they can view him as a friend or a “member” to their community.
ReplyDeleteLiebow starts off by citing a handful of shelters in the city of Upton; he then describes the interior arrangement of the shelters. The author describes the cots, eating areas, and restrooms with exactness and proximity. Liebow then describes some of the conditions of the shelters and how some of these conditions took a toll on the women. The author accounts difficult conditions of the shelters such as the fact that the women were required to leave the shelter by 7:00am and the noisy sleep conditions.
The chapter on family impacted me the most because people, like me, wonder why homeless women are homeless if they have a family. Because I come from a very supportive family, it was hard for me to imagine familial ties being severed between people no matter the circumstance. However, as Liebow explained, most homeless women come from working and lower-class families which would inhibit the family members from affording to take in their homeless kin even if they wanted to provide shelter. Ironically, Liebow stated that power and money were also major factors why homeless women could not find refuge within the home of a family member.
One passage that resonated with me was when Liebow describes how “It was as if allowing this now-grown, one-her-own woman into the house would make her a child-daughter again, and make them her parents, with all the responsibilities such a relationship entails.” Shortly after this passage, one woman describes an instance when her mother gave her money to leave the city but would not allow her in the house on a hot day for a glass of water; the mother brought the water outside to the woman. The mentality Liebow describes above is gut-wrenching and hard to imagine. To me, a child should always be someone’s child, to take care of despite disagreements and what they do wrong. This example relates to Liebow’s main purpose of the book in that it gives insight to some reasons for women being homeless. If the audience can understand the conditions of a homeless woman’s family life, they can understand the nature of homelessness.
A participant-observer study is when a researcher completely immerses themselves within the subject they are going to study by attempting to adapt the same lifestyle or role as their subject. This method will always be limited by the fact that the researcher is always just taking on a role and will never be able to fully adapt the lifestyle of their subject. Even so, more than anything this kind of research grants the researcher a firsthand perspective. Liebow’s study illustrates this in the way that he has completely immersed himself in the homeless shelter and the lives of the women staying there. Liebow becomes very involved in the women’s lives, as he even drives them places and makes phone calls for them, which builds trust in his relationship with the women. This in creates a credible relationship between the reader and the author, because we can believe what he recounts as his relationship with the women is so strong we would have no reason to believe they would lie to him. Plus, what he says is enhanced due to his position as a researcher because we trust he is searching for facts and data to support all he learns from the women, much of which he presents in the book.
ReplyDeleteThe most prominent characteristic described by Liebow about the space in the shelter is a lack of privacy. The women have to share virtually all spaces in their lives, such as sleeping spaces and bathrooms. They are given cubbies or lockers to store their personal property, but that means they can only carry as much as will fit in a cubby. This lack of privacy leads to both positive and negative feelings among the shelter women. Often being so close together is uncomfortable for the women, especially in respect to the bathroom and fear of getting one’s belongings stolen. Also the sleeping arrangement is difficult because it is quite noisy. In this way the shelter tends to act as more of a safe place for the women than a place to sleep. The closeness of the shelter also serves to create a strong feeling of community, which is positive for community because it can act a family for women who for the most cases have no family of their own. And this can be very important for the mental wellbeing of the women.
I found the second chapter “Work and Jobs” to be particularly compelling. For the most part this chapter describes the difficulties homeless women face when trying to find and keep jobs, especially as they have no means of communication or personal transportation. More than that Liebow discusses how jobs affect women on a sociological level. He described situations where a lot of women would refuse to seek public assistance, but would rather fight to scrape by on low wage jobs. This, he says, is because having a job means much more than just having source of income but it also means being a contributing member of society. It gives them something to work for, something to ear, a community to be a part of, and these are all benefits of a job that would be very proactive for a homeless women. The passage where he describes this philosophy was very interesting to me. Homelessness is often associated with laziness, or a withdrawal from society, but the idea of a woman giving up an opportunity for more stability through public assistance in exchange for the mental benefits of a job which may not be enough to make ends meet is inspiring to me. Simply the idea that these women would rather be poor and a part of society and a larger community and working for what they earn than slightly less poor and on assistance, not contributing to society really struck a chord with me. This idea relates to Liebow’s main argument by explaining how many social constructs, which we often take for granted, have a larger psychological hold on us, which is highlighted if we lose access to it. Often people complain about their jobs, but Liebow explains that once jobs are no longer available to you, a job becomes most exciting and important.
1. A participant-observer study is a particular method of social/psychological research where the researcher conducts research by being fully immersed in the role or situation that is being studied. In essence it is like trying to place one’s self in someone else’s shoes and observing how they carry out their life. The main goal and success of observer-participant studies is that this method often gives the research an ‘in’ to a group, to study the behavior without imposing their presence and therefore altering behavior (as the researcher).
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is impossible for a researcher to fully conceptualize and be the role that they are studying; as in Elliot Liebow cannot be a homeless women seeing as how he is a middle-class, educated man. Another problem with observer-participant studies is the issue of cognitive bias. In placing themselves in someone else shoes, it is hard to banish the judgments and perceptions about that role; perceptions and judgments can be sub-conscious and affect the research. Participant-observer studies are flawed also in they do not follow the scientific method. They therefore lack objectiveness, lack a control subject, and are not replicable.
The conclusions that Liebow comes to in the chapters reflect his bias as a research or a man, and the included comments by Grace and/or homeless women serve as a check to his statements. From his writing, it is clear that his role as a researcher because of his intense focus of how the women became homeless or a reason for their unemployment.
2. The physical spaces Liebow describes are cramped, unadorned, and at the bare minimum functional. There is no private space, there is lack of choice; both of these encroach on personal expression and thought of the women. While the shelters provide basic necessities and help the homeless, I believe mentally or psychologically the shelters do not provide a haven for the women. In their minds the shelters are just another reminder of their homeless life, they may provide an escape from the elements, but not from the stigma and despair of being homeless.
3. “The energy the homeless women put into working and looking for work is in part a measure of the limited economic rewards of work, and in part a measure of the noneconomic rewards of work. The women value work over and above its economic rewards for much the same reasons that other people do—because it is through work that we engage the world and become a part of it, and through work that we lay claim to membership in the larger community and, in getting paid for our work, have that membership confirmed by others.” (Liebow 78)
Work is so much a part of our lives that is why I chose this passage. The chapter in general describes the efforts of the women to work, and also describes the women who cannot work or do not want to work. However, the most significant message from the chapter for me is that work or one’s occupation/profession is part of one’s identity. Especially here in America; think to when you first meet some one what is the first thing that is asked by yourself or the other person…What do you do for a living? For homeless women who are unemployed, not having a job or not having a meaningful, fulfilling job can present a somewhat crisis in identity. Because of the economic reasons, but also the psychological effects of losing a job, or not being able to find one, I feel this ties into Liebow’s research of homelessness; anyone can become homeless and stay homeless for a long time given the right circumstances.
1.
ReplyDeleteA participant observer study is one in which the observer immerses him or herself into their subject matter in order to facilitate prolonged close and insightful contact. This may allow for a very in depth study of one’s subject, but it does make attachment and bias all the more possible. Liebow’s research exemplifies the participant observer approach. Liebow not only spends a great deal of time with the homeless women he studies, but he also involves himself in their lives and in their stories.
2.
Liebow offers a very specific and technical definition of the spaces the women in in the beginning of his book. Liebow’s structured approach to his description reflects the structure imposed upon the women while they live in these spaces. The women are up and out by a specific time every morning, meals are served at a specific time, and even the use of the bathroom and showers is organized through the use of lists and keys.
3.
Liebows chapter entitled “work and jobs”, was one of particular strength and revelation for myself. In this chapter Liebow explains that work is important for, of course, money, but this is not the reason that the women of the shelters find work necessary. Liebow explains that work offers so more than a sense of financial stability. Work according to the women, and to Liebow, provides a tie to humanity. Work is what keeps these women sane, what allows these women to feel a part of society. As an individual that has never had trouble finding a job and that has never struggled financially, work has never struck me as anything more than a tool to allow myself access to bit extra cash. Realizing the gravity of things that seem so simple to myself, helps me to realize the struggle that these women face on a day to day basis, and to realize empathy for these women and others like them.
Here's Lynzi's first part of her comment:
ReplyDeleteParticipant-observer studies are done in which the observer immerses themselves into the situation of the group that have chosen to study. The goal of this type of study is for the observer to create a relationship with the observed which allows them an insider’s view of the situation and provides an environment in which questions can be answered and more information is gleaned. These studies are particularly important because they provide more personal insight about the situation and the information is more qualitative as opposed to quantitative. The limitations with this type of study are most often found with the observed. The observer can only be as involved as the observed allow them to be and the presence of the observer may change the actions and decisions of the observed from their norms. In Liebow’s study he participates in a participant-observer relationship with the women as he volunteers at the shelters they use and creates friendships that allow him to truly converse with them to grasp what is most important in the situation. Liebow observes the daily interactions the women have with institutions, one another, and the general population. He takes note of their struggles and small victories, and presents the very real challenges these women face on a daily basis. His position as a writer and a privileged male give him more of an outsider’s perspective initially that he is able to overcome through submersing himself in the happenings of the women’s lives.
Here's the second part of Lynzi's comment:
ReplyDeleteIn the introduction to Tell Them Who I Am Liebow introduces each of the shelters that are available for the women’s use and describes them in detail. He does this so that his readers will be able to have a grasp of the women’s situation as they begin reading. The spaces only accept so many women and have strict hours of operation and rules that provide a guideline as to how the women live. In the mornings no matter what the weather the women are forced to leave the shelters and many spend their days waiting until they are allowed re-entry later that night. The resources of the shelters and what they can offer to the women is limited by space, storage, and time. Due to a confined space only a certain number of women are allowed refuge and food, restricted storage space allows only a small amount of treasured items to be stored leaving the women to carry or dispose of excess, and time limits how long the shelters can allow the women to stay before they close for the day and reopen at night. Although the shelters are a far cry from what most would call a “home” they provide the women with a substitute which allows them to carry on. At the shelters the women can find a safe place to rest (a good night’s sleep often eludes them) even for a short time, and a community that understands their pain.
And here's the third part:
ReplyDeleteI found the “Day by Day” section very interesting in this weekend’s reading. It really helped put into perspective what the women are forced to endure as homeless and how they find the ways to survive in their situation. It particularly appealed to me because I have no firsthand knowledge of the situation and I know very little about the challenges that are present when you are homeless. The small things that I take for granted or find as small nuisances can be absolutely staggering to a homeless woman. Take for example sleeping in on the weekends. I have always appreciated the time to sleep, but I had never thought about how this could be such a privilege, and one that these ladies are not able to enjoy.
“Past and future, then, and even one’s self, were embedded in one’s belongings.” After reading this short sentence I really understood how true this is. Material belongings are the things that we often use to declare who we are and what we place value in; such as how a cross necklace or bible can symbolize importance of religion and God in one’s life. This section that discusses the amount of trouble to women goes through to maintain possession of their belonging was both intriguing and heartbreaking. I was amazed that they would spend so much money on a monthly basis just to keep a storage facility when they could have been spending the money on a multitude of different things. Then it dawned on me that these possessions may be the only link, other than memory, these women have to happier times; Liebow’s insight as to how they also symbolize the future was also eye-opening. To a person who owns a home silver wear or a lamp may not be the most important things they own, but to a homeless woman owning these are a connection to home and housemaking. If they didn’t have these possessions then it would be like giving up and resigning to the fact they no longer have a place to call home; if they keep them they can continue to look forward to a time when these material things will be called on again as needed in a home setting.
The “Day by Day” section of the book is important to Liebow’s overall study because it sets the stage for the remained of his study and introduces the daily hardships these women face that the general audience would never consider as a large problem. Hopefully once the audience is able to grasp the struggle of a homeless person they will better understand the problem and thus make a larger effort to overcome the homeless problem that our nation is currently suffering from.
1. Participant-observer study is a kind of study in which one gains familiarity with a group of individuals and their lifestyle while studying them in their natural environment. Said person will also find their own role within this study that they are conducting. There are some limitations to this, however. In some circumstances, it is very possible for the observer to get too involved in the lives of the people being observed. It's easy to form a bias in this study, especially if it deals with more emotional topics. If they get too involved and the viewpoint is biased, this affects the research. Also, certain situations may be dangerous for the observer, not allowing for good research. Through this research, we are able to learn in a more intimate the lives of others. It allows us to reach a deeper level of research that one would not achieve by merely reading books or using the internet. Actually experiencing it gives one their own perspective on the topic. Elliot Lebow utilizes all of ths in his research. He places himself in an environment (homeless shelters) in order to further understand and become more familiar with the women who live there. He takes notes during his time with the women and reports on them in his book.
ReplyDelete2. Liebow describes the shelters in very good detail. He explains how most of the shelters have a room with cots, a bathroom with showers and sinks, and usually an area with couches and a TV as well as a designated smoking area. He goes on to talk about storage space for the women, explaining how each woman who checks in at 7:00 pm gets a cubby, then has to check out again at 7:00 am. He is very practical in his explanation, stating each aspect of the shelters as he sees them.
3. I think the chapter "Day by Day" stuck with me the most. This is because when you are able to read what these homeless women actually do with the time that they have and how they live their lives, it stikes a chord. One of the parts that I found significant was when Liebow discussed the women's belongings. After reading how the women are barely able to store the ew belongings they have, or they spend a majority of their income paying for storage space, you realize how privileged you are to just have a room to store your stuff. I will not have to worry about my stuff being stolen off the streets or the city auctioning my belongings because I was unable to pay the rent for my storage cubicle. One quote that helps to summarize this is as follows: "To lose one's stuff, or to have to jettison some of it, was to lose connections to one's past if not the past itself." Liebow discusses this aspect of the womens' lives because it puts a different persepctive and a new light on the harships they have to face day to day, while those of us who are privileged have not had to undergo situations like these.
A participant-observer study consists of the researcher involving him or herself in the situation being studied. While this does help stray away from solely quantitative research, the research is limited down to only the small number of people being studied. In other words, the results may make an assumption about the topic in general, but actually only represent those who were studied. Never the less, this type of research provides invaluable insight that could not be reciprocated with statistics and numbers. It also allows for more connections to be made between causes and effects. In Liebow’s study, he is able to study women through emotions and reasons. Instead of analyzing numbers, he can effectively deduce reasons of why the women act and live the way that they do. He also can recognize correlations between actions that a qualitative researcher simply would not be able to do, let alone prove. For example, perhaps someone could not necessarily figure out how much many homeless women value their few personal belongings through quantitative data. In fact, without talking to them at this level, one could never assume that the reason one homeless women might turn down a higher paying job was because her current one allowed her to store her belongings. His position and identity as a researcher presents his study through his perspective and his interactions. Essentially, how he interpreted and reacted to the women shapes his results.
ReplyDeleteLiebow describes the physical spaces of the shelter as spaces that had a different purpose, but would be made into a space somewhat resembling a home. Even if it did not look like a home, usually the shelters were set up to have all of the physical necessities of a home, like bathrooms and beds. The method which Liebow describes how often the next morning, beds would be pushed to the sides of the rooms, and men’s restrooms would once again become men’s restrooms mirrors the idea that at night, these shelters were home to women, but at day the women are back on the streets.
The chapter “Work and Jobs” plays with the idea that homeless women consist of both the willing to work and the lazy. Instead of instantly defending these women, Liebow admits that there are those who simply do not like or want to work. He elaborated on live-in jobs, which actually sounds like the perfect job for homeless person. Live-in jobs consisted of taking care of a family, including pregnant women, children, and/or the elderly. They were expected to clean, cook, and babysit. In return, they received a place to sleep and a small salary. Many homeless women would quit days after attaining the job, complaining that it was too much work for one to handle. As Terry puts it, “I hate my job, but I love working. And I love the money” (72). Liebow points out that some women hate working, but they hate wandering the streets even more. Homeless women often tell each other that “A job is the way out of homelessness” (pg 52).However, most interestingly, Liebow pointed out that simply by their appearance (sometimes smelly and with baggage) and living situations, homeless women are often discriminated against in the workforce, therefore attaining a job can be difficult, if not relentless. As demonstrated, homeless women are plainly labeled lazy, as the stereotype stems from those who truly are lazy, or drug-addicted. The problem then becomes how those who actually want work attain it when employers’ visions have been fogged when encountering the lazy homeless
A participant-observer is an active narrator, very much involved with the subject matter who makes observations on his or her own personal experiences rather than analysis of external research. The narrator shares their own experiences with the audience and provides deep insight into the situation, in this case a homeless shelter. This type of study is limited, however, in deep research (statistics, scholarly information, etc.) and can sometimes be less reliable. Clearly this observation will have its own slant - the narrator in this particular book works very closely with the women and inevitably adds his own feelings. Because this type of study involves a narrator who is so closely tied in with the subject, it can sometimes be taken as less credible than, say, a peer-reviewed journal.
ReplyDeleteLiebow gives a very particular explanation of the women's surroundings at The Refuge, noting the "pale" yellow walls and other drab characteristics such as the black and gray asphalt floor tiles, the men's restroom turned over to the women, and deliberately noted that such surroundings posed as "the center of social life," an observation that hints to the impact of these surroundings on the women they house. This transitions into Liebow's argument that at the refuge the women have little freedom, even to use the bathroom when they need to.
The chapter that stuck out to me was "Work and Jobs," as so many misconceptions of homelessness were addressed, namely that the way out is jobs and therefore the reason for homelessness must be a lack of motivation to acquire or seek employment: "For homeless people, the road to looking for, finding, and keeping a job is strewn with obstacles. Having no telephone where a prospective employer or employment agency can reach you during work hours is, by itself, enough to discourage some women from looking for anything at all other than the most menial walk-in-off-the-street job. Reciprocally, having no telephone is often reason enough to discourage prospective employers and agencies from wanting to hire you. It is not simply that communication is difficult, but rather that the person who confesses to having no telephone of one's own, or even access to one, is suspect. From the employer or agency point of view, such a person is probably a bad risk. He or she might even be homeless." This passage effectively captures what Liebow hopes to accomplish in writing - to demonstrate the endless cycle that homeless (women) are caught in due just to the fact that they have no phone or address to their name, and that employment is not, in fact, always the road out of homelessness.
A participant is an individual living and is immersed in an environment that has the credibility of having firsthand experience with people, places, or a type of lifestyle, and in this case the homeless women at the shelters. Typically most people outside of these elements would understand these homeless women and shelters differently because first of all people's judgments, based off of what they see and think, start to settle in. This could give hardly any incentive to people with negative judgments to think anymore on those who are homeless, therefore narrowing the possibility of ever understanding the cruel reality the homeless must face every day. So an observer or "outsider" that has taken enough interest in being immersed and walking in the shoes of the misunderstood could be the bridge between the, let’s say homeless and everybody else. This is what a participant-observer is capable of doing, give everybody else the opportunity to be educated; this is Liebow's position as conductor of his study on the lives of homeless women.
ReplyDeleteThere could be many limitations outside of the participant-observer's control. For example, limitations of this study may be that even though Liebow is there to take the time to understand the lifestyles of homeless women, he may only be able to empathize to an extent because first of all he is not homeless, he comes from "outside" perspective, and he is a man. None of these could ever be improved or changed by Liebow, but these sorts of limitations cannot discredit his findings either. Limitations can sometimes even benefit the study, because in this case Liebow does not have first-hand experience with what it feels like to be homeless but because his background and where he comes from is so different, he can compare his findings and new found understandings to the common misconceptions people have. He has ties in both worlds that enable him to carry out such a study.
Liebow describes the shelter space as very limited, and it affects women very much. He explains the common room where the women sleep, as well as other rooms for eating, lounging and watching TV. At the night shelters, Liebow describes the space and amount of women they can accept for the night. For those who are turned away are missing out on food, bathe, shelter and good sleep.
The second chapter, "Work and Jobs", was personally the most intriguing of the three because a completely different aspect of homeless (which I had never put any thought into) was revealed. Most of the time people on the “outside” would not think jobs were a part of a homeless person’s day, but this chapter argued otherwise. These women did have jobs but with the kind of pay they received, escaping homelessness was not in sight. The employers described in the book were skeptical of the women because they lacked a “real” address or phone number, and could be the deciding factor if a job spot was won or if that spot was kept. Even those women who are given the chance to accept a job with a higher pay or potential to take them off the streets sometimes have to pass up the opportunity to only go to a lower paying position for the sake of what could happen or be lost. “Typically, better-paying jobs with big firms required new employees to wait as long as a month or more to get a first check” and “Kim applied, and was immediately offered a job, which she rejected when she learned that her first paycheck would be more than a month in coming. Kim was living on edge. Her debts-mainly her monthly storage bills-would not wait, she said, and she continued with her $3.75-an-hour job as a cashier at Bradlee’s.”
1.
ReplyDeleteParticipant-observer studying allows the researcher to comprehensively understand the context of the researched situation. This is able to be done through close contact. It is somewhat flawed because it only studies what the subjects are willing to teach. In Liebow’s case, he could only learn what these homeless women decided to share with him. While some of the women were willing to share intimate details of their lives others withhold their lives and force Liebow to make assumptions out of a smaller sampling.
2.
Liebow describe the physical surroundings of the women in great detail. He breaks them up in his writing, first touching on the Refuge operates and then moving on to the night shelters. Most of the shelters are run by volunteers though there are some that have paid government workers, though they are few. He next goes on to illustrate the day-by-day functioning of these shelters stating that most are only open during certain times of the year or day and have limited storage space. This forces the women to spend much of their low income on storage lockers. These shelters impact the women in various ways. They give them a sense of rootedness because they often return to the same shelter and develop something of a familial relationship with their fellow dispossessed women. However this false sense of belonging hits them by taking away their feeling of belonging as soon as this feeling is challenged.
3.
Day by day was the chapter that was most interesting to me. It dealt with the lives of these women as they fill the time between when the shelter closes and when it opens later that day. It dealt with the storage lockers that they visit. These remain their bastions that keep their place and their sanity. It also deals with the boredom and the countless minutes that fill the day. Going to the park seems like a great place but what if it snows. The part that identified most with me was the idea that everyone that enters a shelter is now dirty. This was most apparent when one woman was fired from a doctor’s office as a secretary because she resided in a shelter. The doctor said “if I had known you lived in shelter, I never would have hired you, shelters are places of disease.” To which she replied, “Doctor’s offices are places of disease.” This resonated with me because many people say that they wish the homeless to be brought up to our level but everyone is so infected with NIMBY or not in my backyardism. Equality exists for every race but not for every class this is something that needs to be changed.