and horizontal integration" of government is particularly crucial if we are to solve the multisided problems besetting our cities. Government integration is, however, insufficient to produce substantive change. For a "democratic devolution revolution" to succeed, new forms of interaction are also needed among the public, profit, and not-for-profit sectors. Government needs to function as a collaborating partner, facilitating cooperation among all sectors of society by supporting and strengthening individuals, families, and communities. To state the above in a slightly different fashion: In this approach, government serves as a catalyst providing funds to create stable, ongoing partnerships. Government, however, is a second tier service deliverer, with universities, local community organizations, unions, churches, other voluntary associations. community members, and school children and their parents functioning as the core partners that help enable society to go beyond the debilitating clientism of the welfare state. Government guarantees aid and significantly finances welfare services, but local, personalized, caring delivery of services occurs through the third (private, non-profit, voluntary associations) and the fourth (personal, i.e., family, kin, neighbors, friends) sectors of society. • A "democratic devolution revolution" would also involve a strategy of neighborly that emphasizes the 38-388 97-6 3 communities. Building on John Dewey, it conceptualizes neighborly community as crucial to a genuinely democratic society. As such, it emphasizes adapting local institutions (universities, hospital, churches, public schools, community centers, civic organizations) to the needs of local communities. Institutions are the vehicles for enabling people to have real power through powerful local communities. We need to counterpose a Deweyan vision of democratic local communities comprised of caring, compassionate, hardworking, self-reliant, able individuals to both a statist vision and a vision of atomistic, egoistic individuals engaged in a battle of each against all. Vehicles and agencies are needed to enable the government to function effectively as a catalyst for realizing the Deweyan vision sketched above. By way of illustration, I would like to note that HUD's Office of University Partnerships represents one such vehicle. It is a harbinger of how government in general can, should, and must work in the future. The Office serves as a catalyst for tapping the resources of a key institution--the university--that, in turn, can serve as an anchor, catalyst, and partner for local change and improvement in the quality of life in our cities and communities. Indeed, there may be no other institutions that can play so central a role in moving the democratic devolution revolution forward. Higher eds., quite simply, have both the interest and ability to make a profound difference. Universities have compelling reasonsincluding enlightened self-interest--to help to improve America's communities. They are among the only institutions rooted in the American city. They cannot move-the community's fate is their fate. Moreover, working to solve the problems of their university's locality, provides students and faculty members with an outstanding opportunity for learning, service, for learning, service, and advancing knowledge. Universities also have enormous resources--human, economic, and other kinds--which can be used creatively to overcome economic and community disintegration. To illustrate the point, just think of the possible impacts of university-assisted, comprehensive, integrated educationally-based (linked to learning) service provision on a public school, the children, and community. Among other things, it would go beyond co-location of services to a genuine integration of services through the educational process. Dental, medical, social work, education, and nursing students, for instance, would learn as they serve; public school students, in a similar fashion, would have their education connected to real-world problem-solving activities that provide service to other students and community members; and adults in the community would have locally-based opportunities for job training. skills enhancement, and ongoing education. The enormous untapped resources of the community would be tapped as individual members of the community would be able to function as both the recipients and local deliverers of service. This university-connected approach would truly allow us to effectively and compassionately end welfare as we know it. 5 The above ideas are designed to illustrate how government might function as a compassionate catalyst, stimulating effective local partnerships, helping America to fulfill its promise as a fair, decent, and just society for all of its citizens. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have. Lessons from Hull House for the Contemporary Urban University by Ira Harkavy and John L. Puckett, Ira Harkavy is Director of the Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches both in the history and urban studies departments, and is co-executive editor of _Universities and Community Schools. In recent years, he has written on how to involve universities effectively in democratic partnerships with local public schools and their communities. John Puckett is associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, where he conducts research on the university-community relationship. Table of Contents Introduction Social Science and Social Work: The Progressive Tradition The Retreat from Social Reform: Structural Conflicts and Contradictions in the Academy Notes Introduction Since 1981 and the publication of Ernest Boyer and Fred Hechinger's Higher Learning in the Nation's Service, there has been a growing criticism that "higher education in America is suffering from a loss of overall direction, a nagging feeling that it is no longer at the vital center of the nation's work."[1] With the publication of Derek Bok's 1990 book, Universities and the Future of America, that criticism reached a new level of urgency and significance. From the paramount insider position within the higher |