COMMUNITY STRUCTURE ELEMENTS

Communities are key concepts to social work interventions (Fellin, 1995). As Heller and his colleagues

(19884) point out, community is considered one of the most important environmental context for

understanding human behaviour and issues of personal and social wellbeing.

The concept of community means different things to different theorist. As Paul Hoggett (1997)

points out, nowhere is the idea more dominant than in areas of contemporary public policy. “We hear of

care in the community, community policing, community architecture, community development, community

mental health, and, we now even hear punishment in the community (Hogett, 1997, p.3). Some theorist

focus on community as a place, while others focus on community as representing relationships. Still others

focus on it as a source of identification and others as a resource (Moffitt, 1996).

Place as a community in current social life is being threatened by technological advances such as

the internet, video culture, and other technological development, that are transforming the importance of

place in the lives of people. The invention allowed people to live in places other than where they worked,

socialized and shopped for basic necessities.

 In pre modern forms of social organization, community was considered the geographical location

to which people carried out majority of their activities. People in these traditional communities knew how

to behave based on their positions within the community. Their behaviour was predictable primarily

because people in these communal communities shared a system of beliefs and values that tied them

together.

Many people continue to search for places that will provide them with a better sense of

community. They are seeking the benefits once found traditional communal ways of life in the places they

want to live. This is clearly evident in the growing trend in urban design toward what is termed new

urbanism, or neutraditionalism. This movement seeks to recreate places in urban settings that offer

opportunities for increased interaction among its residents. These planned communities offer individuals a

greater opportunity to achieve what psychologist termed a sense of community. A sense of community

involves the feeling an individual has for his or her relationship to the place or community of which he or

she is a part. It can also include the sense of what it means to belong to particular collective or location.

(Ashford, J. et al, 2001).

A sense of community typically includes the following elements:

(Ashford, J. et al, 2001).

1. Membership means the people experience feeling of belonging in their community.

 2. Influence signifies that

people feel they can make a

difference in their communities.

3. Integration, or fulfilment of needs, suggests

that members of the community believe that

their needs will be met by the resources

available within the community.

4. Emotional connection implies that

community members have and will share

history, time, places and experiences” (Duffy

& Wong, 1996 p.18).

Social Functioning is a technical term in social work

that supports the profession’s focus on person-in-

environment transactions. Social functioning

“involves addressing common human needs that

must be adequately met to enable individuals to

achieve reasonable degree of fulfilment and to

function as productive and contributing members of

society” (Hepworth & Larsen, 1993 p.5).

 The Dual Perspective

is a cognitive approach for

understanding the behaviour,

attitudes, and response

patterns of minority clients

within the context of the

dominant culture. The

approach seeks to

acknowledge the fact that

every person is a member of two systems: the dominant societal system and the system involving the

client’s immediate emotional, physical and social environment. According to the dual perspective, these

two systems are referred to as the sustaining system and the nurturing system.

Types of Social Structure

Sociologist Talcott Parsons theory of structural functionalism, identified four functional elements that are

essential to the survival of any social system.

1. Adaptation: The way we adapt to our environments is one of the ways we function through

survival in society.

2. Goal attainment: The need to set goals and achieve them in society.

3. Integration: The need to relate to other human beings who share similar interests.

4. Latency: The need to have people motivates us toward our goals of achievement.
These requisites help us understand the role played by key social systems in society. These needs are

fulfilled by as follows:

SOCIAL SYSTEM NEED FULLFILLED BY

1. Adaptation: The economy- money

2. Goal attainment: The political system - power

3. Integration: The social system – social control, norms, and legal rules

4. Latency: Socialization – family, schools

Understanding of Economic Diversity to Build Sustainable Communities

The way children experience life is determined by

the families and communities in which they are

raised; it falls to families and communities to create

a way of life that is healthy, prosperous, and

sustainable.

A mental model of poverty created by people in

poverty illustrates what life is like (DeVol 2004, pp.

7-18).

The mental model is about the middle-class experience.

Comparing and contrasting the mental models of poverty

and middle class will help explain the different mind-sets

of the two populations. (DeVol 2004).

Observations

 Elements that appear in the models are family/friends, housing, safety, and children.

 Elements found in middle class but not in poverty are education, housing as a form of building

assets, jobs as careers, pursuit of interests and hobbies, insurance as a form of security, vacation

and travel, and participation in clubs and civic organizations.

 Elements found in poverty but not in middle class are agency time, car problems, concerns about

food, health problems to the degree experienced in poverty, and the criminal justice system.

 Driving Forces In middle class, the driving forces are work and achievement. In poverty, the driving

forces are survival, relationships, and entertainment. In wealth, the driving forces are social,

financial, and political connections.

 In middle class, people have enough resources and stability to take care of today so they can

concern themselves with the future. In poverty, resources are so low that today must be the focus.

People are busy stamping out fires. In wealth, the resources are so high that the present and the

future are both secure and people can make their decisions according to family traditions.

The mental model is about communities that are at more

risk of becoming unsustainable than others

Interlocking: Elements of the model impact and influence

other elements.

Vulnerability: For communities that lose manufacturing

firms, vulnerability is concrete. Some elements of the

mental model are warning signs; some have the status of

a red alert.
Relationships: Survival requires a reliance on people and organizations inside and outside of the

community. Community members have a shared fate.

Change: Change is harder for struggling communities than for those with strong resources.

Tyranny of the moment: Crises appear with a speed and frequency that demand immediate action and

concrete solutions, thus drawing the focus of community leaders to the present and away from the future.

Destiny: Choices often come down to a decision between two equally bad options.

Future, choice, and power: Communities at risk may lose sight of their future story, as well as the power to

make a positive future story come true.

References

Ashford, J., Lecroy C. & Lortie K. Human begavior in social environment. A multidimensional perspective
Second edition.
DeVol, P. Using the Hidden Rules of Class to Create Sustainable Communities: aha! Process, Inc. Retrieved
from
http://connectionsaustin.org/pihaustin/Poverty%20Issues_files/The%20hidden%20rules%20of%20class.pdf