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Settlement movement

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For the organizations for kibbutzim and moshavim, seeSettlement movement (Israel).

Thesettlement movementwas areformistsocial movementthat began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in theUnited Kingdomand theUnited States.Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and social connection. Its main object was the establishment of "settlement houses" in poor urban areas, in which volunteer middle-class "settlement workers" would live, hoping to share knowledge and culture with, andalleviate the povertyof, their low-income neighbors. The settlement houses provided services such as daycare, English classes, and healthcare to improve the lives of the poor in these areas.[1]The settlement movement also spawned educational/reform movements. Both in the UK and the US settlement workers worked to develop a unique activist form of sociology known as Settlement Sociology. This science of social reform movement is neglected in the history of sociology in favor of a teaching-, theory- and research university–based model.[2]

History

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United Kingdom

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Toynbee Hallsettlement house, founded 1884, pictured here in 1902

The movement started in 1884 with the founding ofToynbee HallinWhitechapel,in theEast End of London.These houses, radically different from those later examples in America, often offered food, shelter, and basic andhigher education,provided by virtue of charity on part of wealthy donors, the residents of the city, and (for education) scholars who volunteered their time.

VictorianBritain, increasingly concerned with poverty, gave rise to the movement whereby those connected to universities settled students in slum areas to live and work alongside local people. Through their efforts settlement houses were established for education, savings, sports, and arts. Such institutions were often praised by religious representatives concerned with the lives of the poor, and criticised as normative or moralistic by radical social movements.[citation needed]

There were basic commonalities in the movement. These institutions were more concerned with societal causes for poverty, especially the changes that came with industrialisation, rather than personal causes which their predecessors believed were the main reason for poverty. The settlement movement believed that social reform was best pursued and pushed for by private charities. The movement was oriented toward a more collectivist approach and was seen as a response to socialist challenges that confronted the British political economy and philanthropy.[3]

The British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres is a network of such organisations. Other early examples includeBrowning Hall,formed inWalworthin 1895 byFrancis Herbert Stead,and Mansfield House Settlement, also in east London (seePercy Alden).Oxford HouseinBethnal Greenwas sponsored byHigh ChurchAnglicans associated withOxford University.InEdinburgh,theNew College Settlementwas founded in 1893, followed by theEdinburgh University Settlementin 1905.[4][5]Bristol University Settlement was founded byMarian PeaseandHilda Cashmorein 1911.[6]

There is also a global network, The International Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers (IFS).[7]

The movement gave rise to many social policy initiatives and innovative ways of working to improve the conditions of the most excluded members of society. The Poor Man's Lawyer service came about because a barrister volunteered his time and encouraged his friends to do the same. In general, the settlement movement, and settlement houses in particular, "have been a foundation for social work practice in this country".[8]

As higher education opened up to women, young female graduates came into the settlement movement. The Women's University Settlement (nowBlackfriars Settlement) was founded in 1887 "by women fromGirtonandNewnham CollegesatCambridge University,Lady Margaret,andSomerville CollegesatOxford UniversityandBedfordandRoyal HollowayUniversities ".[9][10][11]

Australia

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Australia's first settlement activity was begun by theUniversity of SydneyWomen's Society. The Society was instigated byHelen Phillipswhen she was the first tutor of women students at the University of Sydney in 1891–1892. Before she took up that position, Phillips visited Cambridge and Oxford Universities in England to find out how they supported women students. She also visited her younger brother, William Inchbold Phillips, Priest in Charge,St John's College Mission(Lady Margaret Church)Walworth[12]where she learned more about the work of the college mission. The mission involved university students in charitable works and educating poorer people in the area in the settlement movement tradition.[13][14]She took the model back to Australia and formed the Women's Society which focused on visiting patients in hospitals and setting up night schools particularly a night school for girls at Millers Point, Sydney.[15][16][17]After Phillips left the university for missionary and education work in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) the founding principal of the newWomen's College,Louisa Macdonalddeveloped settlement work further through the Women's Association. Over the years The Settlement gained the support of other partners and provided services for Aboriginal and migrant families and is now known asThe Settlement Neighbourhood Centrein Darlington, Sydney New South Wales.[18]

United States

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See also:Social GospelandNew York State Tenement House Act
Bohemian immigrant youth at theLessie Bates Davis Neighborhood Housein 1918 in East St. Louis, Illinois

The settlement movement model was introduced in the United States byJane Addams[19]after travelling to Europe and learning about the system in England.[20]It was Addams who became the leading figure of the settlement movement in the United States with the help of like-minded personalities such asMary Rozet Smith,Mary Keyser,Alice Hamilton,Julia Lathrop,Florence Kelley,andElla May Dunning Smith,among others.[20]

The settlement movement became popular due to the socio-economic situation in the United States between 1890 and 1910, when more than 12 million European people immigrated to the country. They came from Ireland, Russia, Italy and other European countries and provided cheap factory labor, a demand that was necessitated by the country'sexpansion into the westand rapid industrialization following theCivil War.Many immigrants lived in crowded and disease-ridden tenements, worked long hours, and lived in poverty. Children often worked to help support the family.Jacob RiiswroteHow the Other Half Livesin 1890 about the lives of immigrants on New York City'sLower East Sideto bring greater awareness of the immigrant's living conditions.[21]

The most famous settlement house in the United States isChicago'sHull House,founded by Addams andEllen Gates Starrin 1889 after Addams visited Toynbee Hall within the previous two years. Hull House, unlike the charity and welfare efforts which preceded it, was not a religious-based organization. Instead of Christian ethic, Addams opted to ground her settlement on democratic ideals.[20]It focused on providing education and recreational facilities for European immigrant women and children.[22]

Katharine Coman,Vida Scudder,andKatharine Lee Bateswere among a group of women who foundedDenison Housein Boston in 1892.Union Settlement Association,founded in 1894,Lenox Hill Neighborhood House,founded in 1894, Friendly Inn Settlement House, founded in 1894,Henry Street Settlement,founded in 1893,Hiram House,founded in 1896,Houchen Housein El Paso Texas, founded in 1912 andUniversity Settlement House,founded in 1886 and the oldest in the United States, were, like Hull House, important institutions for social reform in America's teeming, immigrant-dominant urban communities. United Neighborhood Houses of New York is the federation of 38 settlement houses in New York City.[23]These and other settlement houses inspired the establishment ofsettlement schoolsto serve isolated rural communities inAppalachia,such as theHindman Settlement Schoolin 1902 and thePine Mountain Settlement Schoolin 1913.[citation needed]

A count of American settlements reported: 74 in 1897; 103 in 1900; 204 in 1905; and 413 by 1911 in 32 states.[24]By the 1920s, the number of settlement houses in the country peaked at almost 500.[22]The settlement house concept was continued byDorothy Day'sCatholic Worker"hospitality houses" in the 1930s. By 1993 the estimated number of houses dropped to 300 in 80 cities.[25]

The American settlement movement sprang out of the-then fashionable philosophy of "scientific philanthropy",a model of social reform that touted the transmission of" proper "[i.e.WASP) values, behavior, and morals to the working classes through charitable but also rigorously didactic programs as a cure to the cycle of poverty. Many settlement workers joined the movement out of a strong conviction that effective social welfare programs were the only thing that could prevent the pernicious development in the United States of a European-style entrenchedsocial classsystem.

Russia

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Site of the Communal Club for Working Children, a cornerstone of the Russian Settlement network.

The movement also spread to late imperial Russia, asStanislav ShatskyandAlexander Zelenkoset up a network of educational and social institutions in northernMoscowin 1905, naming it "Settlement" ( "Сетлемент",the English word transliterated to Russian). This network of institutions was closed down by the government in 1908, due to allegedsocialistactivities.[26]

Description

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Today, settlements are still community-focused organizations, providing a range of services including early education, youth guidance and crime intervention, senior programs, and specialized programs for young people who have "aged out" of the foster care system. Since they are staffed by professional employees and students, they no longer require that employees live alongside those they serve.

Legacy and impact

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Settlement houses influencedurban designandarchitecturein the twentieth century. For example,James Rossantof Conklin + Rossant agreed withRobert E. Simon's social vision and consciously sought to mix economic backgrounds when drawing up the master plan forReston,Virginia.[27]TheNew Monasticmovement has a similar goal and model.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Wade, Louise Carrol (2004)."Settlement Houses".Encyclopedia of Chicago.Chicago Historical Society.Retrieved22 June2009.
  2. ^Oakley, Ann (2023), "Jane Addams and Settlement Sociology", in Patricia M. Shields, Maurice Hamington, and Joseph Soeters (eds),The Oxford Handbook of Jane Addams,Oxford Academic, 14 Feb. 2022),https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197544518.013.25
  3. ^Colls, Robert; Dodd, Philip (2014).Englishness: Politics and Culture 1880-1920.London: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 124–125.ISBN978-1-4725-2334-1.
  4. ^Ashley, Percy (1911)."University Settlements in Great Britain".The Harvard Theological Review.4(2): 175–203.doi:10.1017/S0017816000007136.JSTOR1507407.S2CID163552618.Retrieved17 August2022.
  5. ^Bruce, Lynn (2012).Scottish Settlement Houses from 1886–1934(PDF)(PhD). School of Social and Political Sciences, College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow.Retrieved17 August2022.
  6. ^Thomas, John B. (2004)."Pease, Marian Fry (1859–1954), schoolteacher".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48581.ISBN978-0-19-861412-8.Retrieved2 December2020.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  7. ^"Home".IFS.
  8. ^Reyes, J. M. (2008). Common space, safe place: Lived experiences of former settlement house participants from the West Town and Humboldt Park neighborhoods of ChicagoDissertation Abstract International,69(5), 1682A. (UMI No. AAI3314871) Retrieved 13 July 2009, from Dissertations and Theses Database.
  9. ^"Our History".www.blackfriars-settlement.org.uk.Archived fromthe originalon 8 November 2018.Retrieved12 July2018.
  10. ^Holloway, C. (2023).Women and the Anglican Church Congress 1861-1938.Bloomsbury Academic.ISBN978-1-350-32420-6.Retrieved11 May2024.
  11. ^Bush, J. (2007).Women Against the Vote.Oxford University Press. p. 49,50.ISBN978-0-19-153025-8.Retrieved11 May2023.T.H. Green had [in the] 1870s acted as secretary to the Association for the Education of Women, as well as assisting the formation of the Society of Home Students... [Green had used the model of] the late Victorian settlements which enabled university men and women to help the poor by living amongst them. The success of such ventures owed much to the general expansion of both philanthropy
  12. ^Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900.United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2011. p115
  13. ^The Sydney UniversitySettlementis still open.
  14. ^Phillips, Helen P. and Mort, Eirene. and Cave & Co.From Sydney to Delhi with Cook's coupons breaking the journey for a fortnight in Ceylon / by Helen P. Phillips; illustrated by Messrs. Cave & Co., Colombo and Irene Mort, SydneyIndustrial School Dodanduwa [Sri Lanka] 1914
  15. ^Woolston, H. (1999) "Helen Plummer Phillips 1851-1929, Headmistress and Missionary".Church of England Historical Society Journal,44(3, September): 36-40
  16. ^Phillips, Helen P. and Mort, Eirene. and Cave & Co.From Sydney to Delhi with Cook's coupons breaking the journey for a fortnight in Ceylon / by Helen P. Phillips; illustrated by Messrs. Cave & Co., Colombo and Irene Mort, SydneyIndustrial School Dodanduwa [Sri Lanka] 1914 p63.
  17. ^Bygott, Ursula M. L. and Cable, K. J. and University of Sydney.Pioneer women graduates of the University of Sydney 1881-1921 / by Ursula Bygott and K.J. CableUniversity of Sydney Sydney 1985
  18. ^"History".The Settlement.Retrieved1 July2022.
  19. ^Shields, Patricia M., Maurice Hamington, and Joseph Soeters, (2023)'On the Maturation of Addams Studies: A Figure of Vital Intellectual and Practical Significance', in Patricia M. Shields, Maurice Hamington, and Joseph Soeters (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Jane Addams p. 3-34. Oxford Academichttps://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197544518.013.45
  20. ^abcShook, John R. (2005).Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers.Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum. pp.21.ISBN1-84371-037-4.
  21. ^Friedman, Michael; Friedman, Brett (1 January 2006).Settlement Houses: Improving the Social Welfare of America's Immigrants.Rosen Classroom. pp. 4–7.ISBN978-1-4042-0859-9.
  22. ^abDanilov, Victor J. (26 September 2013)."Social Activists".Famous Americans: A Directory of Museums, Historic Sites, and Memorials.Scarecrow Press. pp. 356–357.ISBN978-0-8108-9186-9.
  23. ^"Stronger Communities, Together | United Neighborhood Houses".www.unhny.org.
  24. ^Woods, Robert Archey; Kennedy, Albert Joseph, eds. (1911).Handbook of Settlements.Charities Publication Committee, New York, The Russel Sage Foundation. p. vi.Retrieved16 August2021.
  25. ^Husock, Howard (1992)."Bringing back the settlement house".Public Welfare.109(Fall): 53–72.
  26. ^Valkanova, Y.; Brehony, K. J. (2006)."Gifts and Contributions: Friedrich Froebel and Russian Education (1860 – 1929)".History of Education Journal.35(3): 187–209.Retrieved26 July2015.
  27. ^ "Reston".JamesRossant.com.Retrieved30 December2010.

Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toSettlement houses.
Wikisourcehas the text of the1911Encyclopædia Britannicaarticle "Social Settlements".

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