Working with Communities

1. Conceptualization and Definitions

 McIver – Community is “an area of social living marked by some degree of social coherence.”
 Lundberg – Community is “a human population living within a limited geographic area and carrying
on a common interest.”
 Bogardus—Community is “a social group with some degree of ‘we’ feeling and ‘living in a given
area.”
 Ogburn and Nimkoff—Community is “the total organization of social life with a limited area.”
 Talcott Parsons – “A community is that collectivity the members of which share a
common territorial area as their base of operation for daily activities”
Majumdar H T “A community comprises the entire group sympathetically entering into a common
life within a given area, regardless of the extent of area or state boundaries.”
 G D H Cole – “By a community I mean a complex of social life, a complex including
a number of human beings, living together under conditions of social relationship,
bound together by a common however constantly changing stock of convictions,
customs, traditions, and conscious or some extent of common social objects and
interests.”
 social cohesion - the willingness of members of a society to cooperate with
each other in order to survive and prosper.
 customs - A traditional practice or usual way of doing something followed by a
social group or people.

Community concept: Normative definition:-

Lindeman:
The aim of community life is to bring about amicable relations between men and groups of men
(1921)
An ideal community should furnish to its human constituents:
1. Order, or security of life and property
2. Economic well-being, or security of income
3. Physical well-being, or health and sanitation
4. Constructive use of leisure time, or recreation
5. Ethical standards, or a system of morality
6. Intellectual diffusion, or education
7. Free avenues of expression, or means
8. Democratic forms of organization, or community-wide organization
9. Spiritual motivation, or religious associations (Lindeman 1921)

2. Most Important Characteristics or Elements of Community

(1) A group of people:
(2) A definite locality:
(3) Community Sentiment:
(4) Naturality:
(5) Permanence :
(6) Similarity:
(7) Wider Ends:
(8) Total organised social life:
(9) A Particular Name :
(10) No Legal Status:
(11) Size of Community:
(12) Concrete Nature:
(13) A community exists within society and possesses distinguishable structure which distinguishes it
from others.
Characteristics
 Community as an area marked by the sentiment of common living. It includes
 (a) a group of people,
 (b) within a geographic area,
 (c) with a common culture and social system,
 (d) whose members are conscious of their unity, and
 (e) who can act collectively in an organized manner.
Characteristics of a community
i. Community consists of a group of individuals living a particular area with
some degree of “ “we feeling”
ii. Community normally denotes a definite locality, but now ….
iii. Community is concrete
iv. Community sentiment is an essential element of community.
Elements of a community
 Group of people
 Locality
 Community sentiment
 Permanency
 Likeness
 A particular name
 No legal status
3. Types of Community
 Interest community: Communities we need to know/ the people who are involved in our particular
action.
 Need or benefit community: Consists of people who currently experience the problem or could
benefit from its resolution.
 Action community: Consists of people who recognize or could easily recognize that a problem
exists and are willing to work to resolve it.(change agent)
 Target or response community: Consists of people whose policies, actions or inaction’s
somehow perpetuate the problem.
 Peripheral community: The wider community
Functions
1. Production, distribution, consumption
 Community provides means to make a living for its members (agric, industry, services)
2. Socialization
 Through which norms & values are instilled (tradition, formal education)
3. Social control
 Means to enforce adherence to community values (group pressure or formal law)
4. Social participation (involvement)
 Community fulfills the need for companionship (neighborhood, public place, religious institutions,
business etc)
5. Mutual Support
 enables cooperation among & between members
4. Defining Power
 Ability to make one obey the wishes of the other, total control in decision making.
 Power is “the capacity to move people in a desired direction to accomplish some end” [Homan,
1999]
 Power may also be seen as the ability to prevent someone from doing something they want to do.
 If the power is proper, legitimate, it becomes authority.
Power in the Community
 The political system determines who makes decisions in a community.
 Critical to understand how power operates within communities.
 A few have power, most do not.
 Elite and masses
 Inequality of distribution of power
Types of Power
 Potential Power and Actual Power.
 Potential power
 is power that has not yet been exercised
 exists when we can influence others but have not done so.
 Actual power is the use of power to influence others.
Sources of Power
 Financial asset
 Business ownership
 Community status
 Possession of Information
 Links to other individuals, groups, or organisations with power
 Economic: Land, money, business, ownership of industry
 Political: In a democracy, ultimately numbers; political connections.
 Social: Prestige, respect by society, caste status
 Religious: Heading a religious order, mutts.

Cumulative Power Structure

 Concentration of all types of power in the hands of one group or one type of persons.
 Pakistan: under military rules.
 Former Soviet Union
 Present China.
 Nineteenth century India: Zamindars,
Jagirdars, Jenmis: land, caste status,
access to authorities

Dispersed Power Structure

 Those who have political power, do not have much economic or social power.
 Those who have economic power do not have much political or social power.
 Those who have social power do not have much economic and political power.
Democracy involves moving from a cumulative power structure to a dispersed power structure.
The New Panchayati Raj
 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution, 1992.
 Constitutionally guaranteed powers .
 Division of powers
Mandatory representation for women, SCs, and STs
 Power structure slowly dispersing again.
Who has the Power? How to
Detect?
 Power tends to be concentrated in a relatively small no. of people.
 It is important to know how to detect who has this power.
 1. Reputational Approach
 Simply asking others about who has power
 Powerful people are likely to be mentioned most frequently
2. Issues Approach
 those who are influential in addressing important community issues are powerful people
 Techniques useful for both approaches to power assessment [Homan, 1999]
 Powerful community members can be spotted by looking at the lists of important community
groups/orgs.
 Noting whose names appear in the local media most often
 Identifying those who are sought out by others for their opinions.
3. Positional Approach
 those who hold various important positions in a community also have power.

Power Elites
 In no society is power of any kind equally or equitably distributed.
 A few have power, most do not.
 Those who have, are called “elites”.
 Those who do not: ”masses”
 What is the extent of inequality of distribution of power?
 Do power bases shift?
 What is the interrelationship among the different kinds of power elites?
5. Community-level decision making.
Methods of Group Decision Making
 Group methods of ensuring authentic participation as a means towards
transformation.
 Groups are seen as preparing ground for participation.
 Trust and dialogues are pre requisite for group process.
 Founded on love, humility and faith, dialogue becomes a horizontal relationship of mutual trust.
 Trust cannot exist unless the words of both parties coincide with their actions
 Issues facing the people are often complex
 No body is totally ignorant
 To discover valid solutions everyone needs to be both a learner and a teacher.
 Groups provide an environment for mutual learning process.
Meaning of Group Decision Making
When two or more people who interact and influence each other attempt to select a
preferred course of action from two or more alternatives.
 Group decisions emerge from group meetings.
 These meetings may be called as conferences, committees, staff meetings
etc
Structure of the Groups - Size
Majority of people find it difficult to speak in a big group of strangers.
 There is usually not enough time for everyone to speak.
 Therefore if everyone is to participate actively, small groups are essential.
Group Decision Making
A no. of small group process may be used in decision-making process.
 ‘Committees’ - decision-making groups.
 Decision-making is defined as the selection of a preferred course of action from two or more
alternatives.
 Group decision-making has several advantages over individual decisions making.
 Greater knowledge
 Greater number of approaches to the problem
 Greater acceptance of the solution through participation and support
Involvement /
Types of decision making
 Neither possible nor desirable to involve everybody in every decision.
Who should be involved in making which decisions.
 How many people were actively involved in making a decision
Difficulties in Decision-Making
 Every group is constantly involved in making decisions.
 Decisions may be big, little, easy, hard, right or wrong.
 A bit of information may change the mood of the group,
 a loud objection,
 an expression of approval or hostility,
 envy or admiration,
 contempt or arrogance,
 can have an impending decision.
 Has difficulty making the decisions.
 Some become paralyzed when confronted with a decision
Factors in Making Good
Decisions
 a. Clear goal
 b. Clear understanding of who has responsibility for the decision.
 c. Good means of stimulating and sharing ideals
 d. Effective leadership and structures to deal with the size of the group.
 e. Effective way of testing different suggestions offered.
 f. Commitment of the leader to genuine group involvement in making the decision.
 g. Agreement on the procedures on what procedures will be most appropriate.
 e.g. consensus, majority vote, secret ballot etc
Different methods of Decision-Making
Meeting
 any gathering, assembly or coming together of two or more persons for the transaction of some
lawful business of common concern
Conference
 an informal group discussion by three or more persons, with the object of carrying out open minded
exploration and usually of achieving consensus or integration of thinking on a subject or problem
Committee
 a group of persons, limited in membership, byselective appointment, usually appointed by some
superior authority and having joint responsibility for
inquiry, deliberation, decision, action or relatedactivities in regard to matters assigned to them
6. Leadership –
Meaning & Definitions
 The action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this.
 According to La-Piere, “Leadership is a behaviour that affects the ‘behaviour of other people more
than their behaviour affects that of the leader.”
 According to Mazumdar, H. T., “The leader is one who has power and authority.” But that neither
means that leadership and power are the same thing nor does it mean that power and influence are
equivalent.
 According to Allen, “Leadership is the activity of persuading people to co-operate in the
achievement of a common objective”.
Leadership styles and traits
 Kurt Lewin (1930s) developed a leadership framework
based on a leader's decision-making behavior. [three types of leaders]
 Autocratic leaders
 make decisions without consulting their teams.
 This is considered appropriate when decisions genuinely need to be taken quickly
 Democratic leaders
 allow the team to provide input before making a decision
 the degree of input can vary from leader to leader, can be quite difficult to manage when there are
lots of different perspectives and ideas.
 Laissez-faire leaders
 don't interfere; they allow people within the team to make many of the decisions.
 This works well when the team is highly capable & motivated
 it doesn't need close monitoring or supervision.
 this style can arise because the leader is lazy /distracted
 this approach can fail.

The 5 Essential Characteristics

of a Leader [qualities]
1. A Good Sense of Organization
2. Knows How to Get People Motivated
3. Knows How to Communicate
4. Can React to Changes
5. Knows What to Do and What to Delegate

Essential characteristics of good

leader [qualities]
- Detail oriented
- Outstanding Communications Skills
- Respectful
- High level of energy
- Good negotiation skills
- Flexibility when adapting to changes