The list seems to focus on individuals more than on large groups and/or the community as a whole. And it seems to focus on problems that these individuals are having with making the sytem work effectively for them.

The agencies listed seem to deal with problems experienced by minorities, by children, by women with the criminal justice system, with finance, with counseling.

The list seems to focus on local concerns, concerns of people trying to help people, face to face, in the social settings in which their problems occur. Note that two requests even specified the county in which information is needed, Riverside. That means that we seem collectively to be relating to agencies in terms of the actual physical buildings in which the people who comprise agency personnel receive those who have problems. That suggests that we are going to need to learn to socially distance ourselves from the local situatedness so that we can grasp policy and look to theory.

Normative ordering refers to the ways in which we develop patterns of relating to the various institutions within our society. The list we have created here suggests that we relate as individuals, one on one. But much of the modern or postmodern global setting that is gaining prominence today requires that we relate in terms of policy and theory. Let's make it a goal to be aware of that need to shift our patterns of thinking in this class.

That was financial aid in times of distress. Agencies were involved, but not the same ones who would be involved with individual crises. The Federal Reserve Bank had to be concerned about interest rates if significant numbers of jobs were lost. It was welfare of a kind, but for the corporation, because the corporation's financial health in this case could have seriously affected the financial health of our whole economy. It's welfare taken apart and put back together sideways. It could be described as for the workers to the extent that the "trickle down" effect actually works. It was a little like social security in that it was one implementation of our policy that we must keep our economy healthy, meaning that workers must be able to earn a reasonable standard of living.

I don't think our list reflects any of that.

Local is very much a practice level. The more cosmopolitan we become, the more we are able to socially distance ourselves and look at the problems as policy and as theory.

Our list is primarily local, which serves to suggest a goal for the class: gaining a more cosmopolitan outlook on agencies and the role they play in our lives.