ABSTRACT
Addams’s experiential narratives detail two methods by which Addams and other Hull House residents foster collaborative friendship with and among immigrant neighbors to move beyond the gap between philanthropist and beneficiary classes. The first method confronts class hierarchy through direct personal interaction across classes. Addams’s paradigmatic example is the charity visitor who arrives in the home of an impoverished immigrant family presuming to give “advice upon the industrial virtues” such as thrift and self-sufficiency (Addams 1907/1964, 16–17). When she recognizes that she is ill equipped to deal with the conditions her family faces, and that the family has social ethics that she lacks, she develops humility. That injects reciprocity into their exchange, even though the parties cannot make the same contribution and their economic inequality remains.
Addams’s second method confronts class hierarchy indirectly, through civic, social, and educational activities that bring neighborhood groups in contact with each other, city agencies, and university professors. This method strengthens the possibility for political friendship among diverse beneficiary class groups who can collaborate to resist exploitation by philanthropist class groups, for example, through labor unions. I analyze accounts of both methods to flesh out how Addams facilitates interaction among diverse unequal parties, and how the parties evolve epistemically to pursue a common goal.
