The role of the church in Poverty reduction

Poverty continues to be an important issue of public discussion in Canada and, as a signatory to the United Nation’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, it ought to remain in the realm of public conversation. Churches have historically been active in poverty alleviation but, given the uneven effects of church efforts in the provision of social welfare and gradual secularization of social services where the role of churches has been progressively assumed by government, a critical discussion about the role of churches in addressing poverty today and into the future is necessary. This project examines the focal research by pursuing research outcomes:

  • Understanding the history of church engagement with poverty reduction in Canada and how it shapes the current culture and psychology of poverty reduction.

  • Understanding the current culture and psychology for the preferred role of churches in poverty reduction.

  • Understanding the language constitutive of the taken-for-granted culture and psychology of poverty reduction.

PROJECT REPORTS

Project Background

This project began at a community-based research (CBR) networking event where the Acting General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches presented on current needs that could be addressed through community-based research (CBR). One urgent need that he presented was the need for CBR research to address the role of churches in poverty reduction. With the release of the federal poverty reduction plan “Opportunity for All” (Employment and Social Development Canada, 2018), the role of churches and possible future actions has become unclear. Dr. James Cresswell followed up on this request by discussing the potential value of using critical cultural psychology (described below) as a frame to address this need and convened a meeting of representatives from the Canadian Council of Churches, the Canadian Poverty Institute (CPI), and the Centre for Community Based Research.  

Current Research Activities

Addressing this question is possible by orienting to the interface between culture and psychology. The focal research question will be addressed by drawing on the theoretical frame of cultural psychology that can lead to practical community-based action. The approach in this project is one where boundaries between culture – defined as the taken-for-granted practices of a community – and mind are downplayed This framework enables a critical reflection while also addressing the current communal subjectivity concerning what members of Canadian churches think the future preferred role of Canadian Churches ought to be.

History of the Culture and Psychology of Church Poverty Reduction

As such, approaching the cultural psychology of a community begins by looking at its history. The way that members of the Canadian church culture, broadly conceived, think about poverty is bound to the history of this community. Dr. Kyle Jantzen is undertaking a survey of selected Canadian denominational annual reports and church periodicals from traditions most strongly represented in our participant pool: The Salvation Army, The United Church of Canada, The Peace Churches (Mennonites), and the Christian Reformed Church. Such work enables us to understand, comparatively, the historical attitudes and perspectives on church engagements with poverty reduction.

 This research will provide an understanding of the history of church engagement with poverty reduction in Canada and how it shapes the current culture and psychology of poverty reduction (Research Outcome One).

Churches and the Systems of Poverty Reduction

An important aspect of critical cultural psychology is the idea that participants in a culture often express a generic set of ideas and beliefs. Even though one may feel that one’s own thoughts are unique to oneself, the seemingly personal thoughts are often socio-communally constituted. This claim is rooted in the hermeneutic tradition that a particular instance of expression is an expression of a community’s ideas. Members of a community express ideas commonly expressed in the community and so a large number of key informants involved in the Canadian church community are not needed for this preliminary work. Loosely structured interviews with key informants enabled open ended conversation on the preferred role of churches.

We conducted interviews with key informants that discussed:

(1)    Vision (motivations, values, and aspirations) that provides direction underlying systems of poverty reduction.

(2)    Process (actions that enable people to implement the vision poverty reduction).

Discussion of these components provoked a rich discussion of the tacitly known ideas and belief about the role churches have played and what the future can look like for churches redressing poverty. The result will be an understanding of the ideas and beliefs entailed in current culture and psychology of the preferred role of churches (Research Outcome Two).

Churches and the Language of Poverty Reduction

Cultural psychology shows how the everyday practices of a community shape the mindsets of its members. One such practice, for example, is the use of language where members of a community will use a particular genre of jargon in a genetically similar manner. This vocabulary provides members with concepts that structure perceptions. A lexicon includes a particular style that is also entwined with an embodied experience. The in situ use of this vocabulary structures perception in the course of social interaction, which is entwined with emotional and physiological experience. A result is that perception and experience is constitutionally entwined with socio-cultural phenomena like language. The words used to articulate experiences are not mapped onto inner experiences because the words themselves shape those experiences.

We are currently doing a careful analysis of the way that language is used can inform the taken-for-granted culture of a community by looking at language-use in our participants. The analysis provides an understanding of the language constitutive of the current culture and psychology of poverty reduction in church-related initiatives (Research Outcome Three).

Advisory Panel

To ensure community governance, the Canadian Council of Churches is designated as the community partner and serves as a non-academic collaborator that has offered start-up funding and brings to bear an extensive network of connections for the purpose of identifying participants and disseminating results. The CPI contributes expertise and experience working with poverty, including consultation with the federal government on the recently released federal Poverty Reduction Plan - Opportunity for All. The Centre for Community-Based Research provides oversight and substantial experience in community-based research. Food for the Hungry Canada was invited to offer a ‘grass roots’ experience of working with people in poverty. Representatives from these organizations constitute an Advisory Panel that provides a meaningful community voice in project governance that includes: assessing grant proposals, participating in the development of methods and research goals committing to review research results, and eventually supporting knowledge dissemination and community mobilization.