“Empowering Yourself thru Relationships with those Rich in Social Capital"

“Empowering Yourself by Getting Someone with “Status / Authority / & Social Capital” to Step into the ‘Advocate Role’ ” (…that “someone” is called an “institutional agent”)

R.D. Stanton-Salazar, Ph.D.

  October 9, 2012 - April 16, 2020

 MYTHS with Consequences

1)    When I pursue a difficult or challenging goal, and I know I’ll need support and many resources, SEEKING THIS SUPPORT ON MY OWN SEEMS BEST; I DON’T HAVE TO ASK for help FROM THOSE I KNOW. (i.e., going directly to those individuals (you don’t know), “gate-keepers,” centers, organizations, and agencies that have the resources you need)

2)    When I am in distress, and dealing with a difficult problem (e.g., divorce, an illness, caring for an elder parent or a very ill sibling, finding the right realtor to avoid Foreclosure), I’D RATHER GET THE HELP AND RESOURCES I NEED on my own, WITHOUT BOTHERING THOSE PEOPLE IN MY SOCIAL NETWORK.

You are much more likely to gain access to the help, support, and valued resources you need when you have a relationship with SOMEONE who has the “capacity” and willingness to step into the role of “institutional agent” and “advocate,” …and WHEN you MOBILIZE that relationship to tackle the problem facing you or to achieve the goal you are pursuing. 

“Social Capital”: defined as high-status institutional resources embedded in social relationships and “social structure” (e.g., the social organization & bureaucracy of the school)

 The Advocate Role: Part I

 “Sociological Rule” …Something truly extraordinary happens when someone steps willingly, and with full commitment, into the “role of institutional agent” and ADVOCATE for another:

• all the “psychological risks” entailed in “seeking help” vanish!! (Mainstream cultural norms [“sick ideologies”] inhibit many people from seeking help; norms that place a value on “self-reliance,” “high-pressure demonstrations of competency,” etc …thus “seeking help” is in many contexts interpreted as a weakness, lacking competency, lack of self-confidence, immaturity, or perceived as “someone likely to drains one’s resources and energy”—thus to be avoided. )*
• When stepping into a “role,” the role itself empowers! The “role” of “advocate” (one manifestation of being an institutional agent) is imbued with responsibility, compassion, power, the subtle nobility entailed in defending another’s right to resources, …the powerful desire, and moral fortitude to do whatever is necessary to gain those resources needed by the person you are advocating for, AND to see “the outcomes” of one’s efforts in the beneficiary (e.g., their success in whatever endeavor they were pursuing, their recovery from an illness--health restored, justice served, etc.)

MYTHS with Consequences

1)    When I pursue a difficult or challenging goal, …SEEKING THIS SUPPORT ON MY OWN SEEMS BEST…

2)    When I am in distress, and dealing with a difficult problem…I’D RATHER GET THE HELP AND RESOURCES I NEED WITHOUT BOTHERING THOSE PEOPLE IN MY SOCIAL NETWORK.

I. Unless you personally know the INDIVIDUAL who possesses valued resources or the  “gate-keeper” who controls access to the resources and services you need, AND are fairly confident that the individual will come to your aid, [or]

…unless you carry or possess enormous status, authority, notoriety, and have powerful networks, SEEKING support, resources and highly-valued services ON YOUR OWN is “high risk,” and not likely to get you the support you deserve and need.

II. You are much more likely to gain access to the help, support, and valued resources you need when you have a relationship with SOMEONE who has the “capacity” and willingness to step into the role of “institutional agent” and “advocate,” … …and WHEN you MOBILIZE that relationship to tackle the problem facing you or to achieve the goal you are pursuing. 

 The Advocate Role: Part II

 An Advocate (as one manifestation of an “institutional agent”):

• STATUS: occupies some high-status position or is a member of some respected “profession,” (and knows how to subtly communicate this “status” to “service provider” / “person who possesses resources” ….or to “gate-keeper”)
• THE ADVOCATE: is willing and able to effectively assert “the client’s” right to needed services and resources; not willing to accept “no” in whatever form.
• DISCOURSE: Knows, or is familiar with, the vernacular or “discourse” of the institution (e.g., university admissions system & administrative network; hospital administration)

o  Knows how to “decode the system,” beginning with "making sense" of cultural logic of the organization or the institution; knows how to “role play” using the institution's "identity kit."

·    LEGAL: Knows how to subtly communicate to “gate-keepers” and to those who possess or control resources and services that they know how to hold the institution or personal legally accountable for providing requested resources and services to individual seeking help (i.e., the “client”) (e.g., state laws governing standardized medical treatment and care at private and county hospitals; laws regulating attorneys; federal laws protecting persons with disabilities: “Americans with Disabilities Act,” city and state laws governing businesses).

·      INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT: Knows the kinds of “institutional support” he or she, as “advocate,” should provide to client [friend, colleague], ……….as well, as the multiple kinds of “support” which the client needs simultaneously [from service providers] to overcome problem or crisis, or in reaching goal.

·      COURTESY/GRATITUDE: Knows how to demonstrate genuine gratitude to “gate-keepers” and to resource/service providers for helping their “client.”

Stanton-Salazar, R. D. (1997). A social capital framework for understanding the socialization of racial minority children and youth. Harvard Educational Review, 67(1), 1-40.

The Social Significance of Social Networks 

A network-analytic approach to “social inequality” in society takes as its starting point what Wellman (1983) refers to as the social distribution of possibilities, a term which refers to the unequal distribution of opportunities for entering into different social and institutional contexts and for forming relationships with agents who exert various degrees of control over institutional resources, such as bureaucratic influence, career-related information, and opportunities for specialized training or mentorship. 

The importance of such institutional agents and advocates can be illuminated in terms how dominant group members consistently depend on these social ties to secure their successful and privileged participation and mobility within mainstream institutional arenas.

Furthermore, personal access to many valued resources and opportunities in society--by way of social networks--occurs through the messy business of commanding, negotiating and managing many diverse (and sometimes conflictive) social relationships and personalities, which includes negotiating through many interpersonal acts of help-seeking and help-giving (Boissevain, 1974). The processes of network construction, negotiation, and help-seeking are known to be quite different across social classes and other status groups (e.g., ethnic and gender differences). For lower-status group members, attempts at help-seeking and network development within mainstream spheres usually occur within the context of differential power relations and within social contexts which are culturally different, if not alienating to cultural outsiders (Eisenstadt and Roniger, 1984). The cosmopolitan networks constructed by middle-class members are oriented toward maximizing individual (and group) access to the mainstream marketplace, where institutional resources, privileges, and opportunities for leisure, recreation, career mobility, social advancement, and political empowerment are abundant, yet painstakingly distributed across many social spheres throughout the mainstream (Fischer, 1982). 

 ADVOCACY & KEY FUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE

• Funds of Knowledge: [Sociological Rule] The more informed and educated both the advocate and the client are, when engaging a ‘professional’ [e.g., physician, attorney sought for counsel, admissions director or staffer at a university],
• …the more the client and advocate demonstrate knowledge of relevant laws & regulations governing the professional (the one who possesses needed resources and support),
• …the more the client & advocate reveal “insider cultural knowledge” of field (physicians as a professional community, the world of college administrators), and
• …the more the client & advocate are able to speak in legalese, or medical jargon, or whatever jargon is used by the “professional”—as a member of a professional community
• …& the more the client & the advocate hint at knowing the quasi-unethical, or patterns of behavior (among some service-providers) that reflect “self-interested” agendas, ….

…the better the service the professional or provider is motivated to provide [knows that he or she will be assertively evaluated and held accountable]; knows as well that client & advocate will inform others,  potential, future clients, people who want to know about the provider’s competency and integrity; this is particularly true when the provider “sees” that the advocate or institutional agent is a member of a high-status professional community. 

“Institutional Agents” & “Institutional Support”

The document elaborates on the concept of institutional agents (similar to “case managers” in social work)—specifically, high-status, non-kin, agents who occupy relatively high positions in the multiple dimensional stratification system, and who are well positioned to provide key forms of social and institutional support. The document focuses on the kinds of institutional support such agents are able to provide. 

 “To get the best, you must surround yourself with the most outstanding, caring, and helpful people.” ….From book by Rick Frishman & Jill Lublin

 “Effective problem-solving is SOCIAL!!:  It depends on our relationships with others, especially with people who have “resource”-ful networks & “connections,” that is, with people willing and capable of stepping into the role of “institutional agent,” and who have developed social & networking skills very similar to highly-competent social workers & case-managers. All the ingredients of success and “highly effective problem-solving” that we customarily think as “individual”—natural talent, intelligence, education, effort, and luck—are intricately intertwined with relationships with people:

• who know how to be an agent and advocate,
• who have developed “resource”-ful networks and participate in them,
• and who are very familiar with the many forms of “institutional support” that are necessary to achieve any goal, or to resolve any problem.   

 This reconsideration of success & effective problem-solving demonstrates why it’s useful to UNLEARN the lessons of [largely dysfunctional] “INDIVIDUAL problem-solving,” revising our perspectives of the world and how it operates.”  

 ….RSS, adapted from the work of Wayne Baker

The Advocate Role: Part III

THE ADVOCATE:  as one form of “institutional agent,” “amigo con palancas,” a person with “status,” and “social capital” (e.g., a teacher, professor, a colleague situated within a high-status network, who is willing to help, to “enter the role of  “advocate.” By definition, and in reality, a highly-effective and powerful “institutional agent” plays many roles at the same time on behalf of the “client” they are serving [friend, colleague, family member].

Advocates/ “Institutional Agents”: What They Do

https://cue.usc.edu/tools/stem/institutional_agents.html

University of Southern California, Center for Urban Education (CUE)

Estela Mara Bensimon

Co-Director and Professor of Education

 Alicia C. Dowd

Co-Director and Associate Professor of Education

https://cue.usc.edu/about/staff.html

https://cue.usc.edu/tools/stem/institutional_agents.html 

References

Stanton-Salazar, R. D. (December, 2010). A Social Capital Framework for the Study of Institutional Agents and Their Role in the Empowerment of Low-Status Students and Youth. Youth & Society, 42 (2).  

        https://yas.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/10/05/0044118X10382877.abstract

 Stanton-Salazar, R. D. (2001). Manufacturing hope and despair: The school and kin support networks of U.S.-Mexican youth. New York: Teachers College Press. (43,800 results on Google using a plain search command) https://store.tcpress.com/0807741086.shtml

 Stanton-Salazar, R. D. (1997). A social capital framework for understanding the socialization of racial minority children and youth. Harvard Educational Review, 67(1), 1-40. (cited in 715 published journal articles)

* * *

Baker, W. (1994, 2000b). Networking Smart: How to Build Relationships for Personal and Organizational Success. McGraw Hill.

Wayne E. Baker (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) Robert P. Thome Professor of Management and Organizations; Chair of Management and Organizations; Professor of Sociology; Professor of Organizational Studies, LSA & Faculty Associate, Institute for Social Research

Frishman, R., J. Lublin, & M. Steisel (2004). Networking magic: Find the best - from doctors, lawyers, and accountants to homes, schools, and jobs.

Jill Lublin: https://www.jilllublin.com/