Over the last 9 months, I have assisted Dr. Amanda Sheely in the project ‘State Supervision of Poor Families in Los Angeles’. The project focuses primarily on how for poor mothers state supervision happens across a variety of systems that often overlap and operate in a disjointed manner. Effectively making it harder for the state to properly support poor mothers and children.The project is centered around the period of 1900 to 1930, therefore it also aims to explore how key characteristics of policies implemented during the Progressive Era, particularly deinstitutionalization and the use of science to understand and treat social problems, also had an effect on how supervisory systems developed over this period.
Tasks and Methods
Throughout the project, I have been assigned several tasks. I first reviewed over 150 archives from the All Nations Foundation. The proper categorisation of these archives was necessary to prepare the documents for qualitative analysis. The dates, individuals and institutions addressed in these archives as well as the key topics discussed were thoroughly reported onto a master Excel sheet. Once the archives were properly analysed they were color-coded based on how relevant they were in relation to the project’s main objectives. The archives from the All Nations Foundation were particularly interesting as they not only discussed the role of community centers and governmental organisations in poor areas of Los Angeles but also addressed in detail the experiences of individuals who lived in these communities and their struggles.
Later on in the project, I was responsible for the John Randolph Haynes papers. John Randolph Haynes had a critical influence on Los Angeles politics and was pivotal to many state reforms during the beginning of the 20th century in California. In this stage of the project over 250 archives were reviewed, the analysis of these documents varied from that of the archives regarding the All Nations Foundation, as the documents collected by John Randolph Haynes specifically addressed social and political changes taking place in the state of California. The same color-coded system was utilized to facilitate the qualitative analysis of the archives. By looking at different archives the objective was to understand how social welfare systems were implemented, how they operated as well as citizens' experiences within these systems.
Lastly, LA City School district records were analysed to better understand the role of the school as a tool by the state to supervise poor families. Particularly how schools cooperated with the city's Health Department as well as other governmental organisations with the goal of making educational institutions a center through which populations could be more closely monitored. By preparing LA City School district records for qualitative analysis the goal was to identify the key ways through which educational institutions became a key supervisory mechanism.
Findings
From the archives that were analysed it can be inferred that for poor mothers it was particularly difficult to navigate as well as to meet the expectations set out by multiple systems. Poor families often get trapped in what can be identified as an ‘institutional maze’, where families rather than being encouraged to seek support from multiple systems are put back by the inflexibility of the systems and their lack of knowledge regarding the support that is available.When looking particularly at the archives from the All Nations Foundation it became evident that access to these systems as well as the experiences of individuals once they were in the system varied considerably based on gender, race and immigration status. The use of scientific knowledge to understand, address and overcome social problems was also addressed in the archives from the All Nations Foundation, showcasing how scientific knowledge was essential to policy making at the time. In the John Randolph Haynes papers on the other hand, how the governmental departments were re-organised in order to better meet the needs of the community was discussed in detail, yet this re-organization did not prioritise supporting poor families, rather ensured institutional supervision of marginalised groups. Lastly, LA City School district records further emphasize how poor families were monitored closely, yet there was no systematic way through which to ensure that children or their parents obtained the neccessarysupport once problems were identified.
Overall, the findings from the archives further reinforce how social control was achieved through both coercion and consent. The mass supervision of poor families in the state of Los Angeles has inherently resulted in the overlap of various systems making it harder for poor mothers and their children to be supported properly. Beyond these overlapping systems, the archives emphasize that some of these systems also worked in contradictory ways, highlighting the inefficiency of the social welfare system at the time.