Another Look at the NIMBY Phenomenon.

Another Look at the NIMBY Phenomenon. The report by Piat, "The NIMBY NIM��BY?n. pl. NIM��BYs SlangOne who objects to the establishment in one's neighborhood of projects, such as incinerators, prisons, or homeless shelters, that are believed to be dangerous, unsightly, or otherwise undesirable. Phenomenon: Listening toCommunity Residents' Concerns about Developing Housing forDeinstitutionalized People," is a very stimulating and challengingpiece of qualitative research Qualitative researchTraditional analysis of firm-specific prospects for future earnings. It may be based on data collected by the analysts, there is no formal quantitative framework used to generate projections. . It is not only written well, but alsodeals with a unique and important topic, the NIMBY ("not in my backyard") phenomenon, that many social workers need to deal with intheir community practices. Using a naturalistic paradigm, the authorreports interesting findings from the well-designed study based onactual cases of community opposition toward group homes in threeCanadian communities. Although the NIMBY is as old and common aphenomenon as the history of most treatment and rehabilitationfacilities in residential areas, the strength of this study is that itprimarily focuses on community residents' viewpoints andperspectives. The study findings suggest several important implicationsfor social work practitioners and social planners in the health careservices field. The underlying tenet of this study appears to be the value issuesbehind community reactions, particularly of the opposition side. Socialwork is a helping profession with specific values. In the case of theUnited States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , the NASW NASW National Association of Science WritersNASW National Association of Social Workers (Washington, DC)NASW National Association of Social WorkersNASW National Association for Social Work (UK)Code of Ethics (as revised, 1997) sets forthvalues, ethical principles, and professional standards to which allsocial workers aspire and by which they can be judged. The Codedelineates six values as key to social work and prescribes ethicalprinciples based on these values. Among these six, the first four seemto be particularly related to the NIMBY problem: (1) Socialworkers' primary goal is to help people in need and to addresssocial problems; (2) social workers challenge social injustice Social Injustice is a concept relating to the perceived unfairness or injustice of a society in its divisions of rewards and burdens. The concept is distinct from those of justice in law, which may or may not be considered moral in practice. ; (3)social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person; (4)social workers recognize the central importance of human relationships.All of these values prescribe certain ethical standards that concernsocial workers' responsibilities to clients, in practice settings,and to broader society as well as to colleagues, as professionals, andto the profession. This study as field research properly addresses thefirst three constituents very well with a keen perception and balancedassessment. In this study, the research design, data gathering technique,analytical and reconstructive scheme are extremely well done. However,there seems to be a lack of clarity in the case selection process."Maximum variation sampling" may be fine for a smallqualitative study, with those five selection variables. However, one(perhaps the most important) criteria was not included orspecified--timing. The author stated that "Incidents of communityopposition to the group homes had occurred during a two-year period atthe time of study" (p. 129), and "the group homes had been inoperation between four months and one year" at the time of thestudy (p. 130). The NIMBY, like any other social phenomenon or movement,is time-sensitive. Many problem-focused social activities and phenomenongradually or even suddenly retard as time passes or as momentum is lost.Thus, exactly when this study took place vis-[grave{e}]-vis the stage ofeach group home development would very much determine the extent andintensity of communi ty reaction to the arrival of such grouphomes--during the planning stage, at the beginning, within three months,six months, or a year later. At what point of development or operationthe data was collected needs to be specified for each case, because thatcan be an important control variable. The sampling of community residents (n = 13) was based on thepurposive pur��po��sive?adj.1. Having or serving a purpose.2. Purposeful: purposive behavior.pur method (names "taken from press clippings") and thenthe snowball method (their suggestions). This approach, although usefuland popular, may highly skew (1) The misalignment of a document or punch card in the feed tray or hopper that prohibits it from being scanned or read properly.(2) In facsimile, the difference in rectangularity between the received and transmitted page. the findings to the most outspoken voicesin each community, let alone nonrepresentative reactions of eachcommunity. An active vocal minority, even though powerful andinfluential, does not necessarily reflect the true reactions of thecommunity majority. The author states that "(F)ictitious names" of"three different communities and group homes were usedthroughout" when describing interviews (p. 130). This is a littleconfusing if the statement that "(N)o identifying information wasused" is referring to confidentiality or anonymity in the interviewprocess or to later reporting. Of course, specific reactions toanonymous community issues may not be possible in the "thenaturalistic inquiry." Then fictitious names must be used only forreporting purposes. Two most prominent findings of this study are the overwhelmingrejection of "the underlying philosophy ofdeinstitutionalization de��in��sti��tu��tion��al��i��za��tionn.The release of institutionalized people, especially mental health patients, from an institution for placement and care in the community. " and the serious question of "thefeasibility of social integration" as expressed by communityresidents. Such community sentiment may be real and perhaps prevalent.The author concludes that "The major finding is thecommunity's lack of support for deinstitutionalization and socialintegration policies" (p. 134). The author's ready acceptance,however, of the face value of residents' reasons for the oppositionmay risk committing a twisted form of "ecological fallacy The ecological fallacy is a widely recognized error in the interpretation of statistical data, whereby inferences about the nature of individuals are based solely upon aggregate statistics collected for the group to which those individuals belong. " orof a reversal of independent and dependent variables in complexassociation analysis. A careful analysis of the residents' verbatimand rationale may reveal that it is not so much their opposition to thedeinstitutionalization and social integration policies per se, ratherthinly covered expressions of their ignorance, fear, distrust, andabhorrence of those "strangers" living in their midst. Theirseemingly oppos ing stance to the policies, in fact, may be a pretext oftheir NIMBY mentality, regardless of, or even in spite of, theirotherwise open and more accommodating attitudes on other social issues.It should be recognized that most people feel easier and morecomfortable dealing with remote or abstract major enemies than withneedy fellowmen in close physical proximity to them. The author as aresearcher could have probed further into their answers in the"in-depth focused interviewing" and even could have speculatedas to the true reasons behind the facade of rationality of communityresidents as respondents under stress. The sense of justice or fairness is an elusive and temporal ideaand subject to personal interpretations of the external world. Manypeople might feel that the world is or should be "more just for methan generally" (Dalbert, 1999, p. xx Provide page number forquotation). In view of human nature, it is almost inevitable that thereare some discrepancies and tension between individual justice andcollective justice. In the social policy area, the dominant theme ofthat incongruity in��con��gru��i��ty?n. pl. in��con��gru��i��ties1. Lack of congruence.2. The state or quality of being incongruous.3. Something incongruous.Noun 1. is a question of self-interest and self-centeredness ofeach individual or group in the larger society. Such selfishness oftencarries sweet attributes of hypocrisy. The policy ofdeinstitutionalization in North America, for example, was not created ina vacuum or by one group overnight. It was a collective long-term policydecision for overall societal good, in which "ordinarycitizens" as well as "policymakers," more or lessparticipated and shared through various political processes. The NIMBYphilosophy and phenomenon unfortuna tely defy the democratic egalitarianprinciple of justice for all and its policy product. According to the author, residents claimed the failure of socialintegration as clientele being unable or unwilling to integrate, thegroup home developers not intending to integrate the clientele, orintegration neither benefiting the community nor the clientele. Theremay be some truth to those perceptions, but there also may be strongelements of self-fulfilling prophecy self-fulfilling prophecy,a concept developed by Robert K. Merton to explain how a belief or expectation, whether correct or not, affects the outcome of a situation or the way a person (or group) will behave. for failures. The respondents'hypocritical stance becomes clearer if they conceive "socialintegration" as being close physical interactions and exchanges incommunity life rather than a broad acculturation acculturation,culture changes resulting from contact among various societies over time. Contact may have distinct results, such as the borrowing of certain traits by one culture from another, or the relative fusion of separate cultures. , mainstreaming, andeventually wholesome humanizing process. Close interaction and exchangesdo not take place often among residents themselves in most urban andeven suburban communities today. Finally, the author suggests that "a concerted effort must bemade to listen to the community residents' concernsabout[ldots]social policies" (p. 136). Understanding and respectingthe community perspective is a very important first step in developingcommunity support and acceptance. Creative mediation and brokerage areimportant roles social workers need to play in any conflict situation.If this writer's reassessment is valid in regard to the communityresidents' rationalization as stated in the article, however,social workers need to play more advocator and educator roles. Socialworkers need to begin telling communities the truth and reality. Socialworkers need to tell residents that a community-based residentialprogram is usually more effective, less costly, more humane, and goodfor the whole society. Social workers need to help people understandthat socialization socialization/so��cial��iza��tion/ (so?shal-i-za��shun) the process by which society integrates the individual and the individual learns to behave in socially acceptable ways. so��cial��i��za��tionn. of deinstitutionalized individuals is feasible,desirable, actually happening, and inevitable in many places. The degreeof success largely depends on the community's participation andaccommodation as well as on public support systems. Social workers needto help strengthen residents' sensitivity and receptivity inbuilding a humane community in their back yard. Yes, we social workersneed to work progressively and persistently for an "in my backyard" (IMBY IMBY In My Back Yard ) movement. After all, social workers are strongbelievers and visionary workers with values for a just and humanesociety for all. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dong Soo Kim, PhD, is professor, Ethelyn R. Strong School of SocialWork, Norfolk State University In 1942, the school became independent of VUU and was named Norfolk Polytechnic College. Within two years, by an act of the Virginia Legislature, it became a part of Virginia State College (now Virginia State University ), and granted its first bachelor's degrees in 1956. , 700 Park Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23504. REFERENCES Dalbert, C. (1999). The world is more just for me than generally:About the personal belief in a just world scale's validity. SocialJustice Research, 2(2), 79-98. National Association of Social Workers. (1997). Code of ethics (asrevised). Washington, DC: Author.