Week 3:

Community
Mapping
CWTS 2
COMMUNITY
 There are a number of ways to think about what a community is. The first,
most obvious way is to think about it as a geographic area, a place with
defined physical boundaries. The most fundamental characteristic of these
geographic communities is that they are places of residence. People are
familiar with them because they live there.
 Some communities are defined by the individuals' shared interest,
activities, affection, or common identity. These characteristics differentiate
them from others. People are usually members of a geographic as well as
interest communities. The notion of geographic and interest or identity
can be seen in the definitions of the word community:
DEFINITION OF COMMUNITY
 Community - a group of individuals or families that share certain values, service,
institutions, interests, or geographic proximity (Barker).
 Community - or a "sense of community" exists when two or more people work
together toward the accomplishment of mutually desirable goals (Lofguist).
 Community - is a territorially bounded social system or set of interlocking or
integrated functional subsystems (economic, political, religious, ethical,
educational, legal, socializing, reproductive, etc.) serving a resident population
plans the material culture or physical plant through which subsystems operate
(Bernard).
 Community – is an identifiable human grouping that is predominantly informal in
organization and interaction, heterogeneous in composition, enduring, and sharing
some characteristics or attributes in common (M.Fernando).
DEFINITION OF COMMUNITY

For our purpose we define a community as: a number of people who share a
distinct location, belief, interest, activity, or other characteristics that clearly
identifies their commodity and differentiates them from those not sharing it.
COMMUNITY NEEDS
The needs of a community are those things a community requires to meet its goals and
to sustain itself. These are routine, ongoing challenges the community must address:

1. Physical Needs - The most basic needs. This set of needs includes those
that help care of our bodies as well as those that deal with the things
we make or build.
2. Social and Emotional Needs - Forming and maintaining relationships is
an integral function of the community. A feeling of wellbeing and
confidence in the future are necessary if a community is to achieve its
potential.
COMMUNITY NEEDS
3. Political Needs - Community life requires a continuous series of decisions
on matters that affect its members. This process involves forming policies
that manage resources and relationships. Each community faces a set of
political needs, and it will develop a governance or decision, making
structure if it intends to respond to those needs. Governance structures
usually have clearly spelled out procedures for gathering information,
making decisions, developing rules or laws, describing those rules or laws,
and enforcing them. These procedures describe who is allowed to
participate in the process and how (Fellin).
COMMUNITY NEEDS
4. Economic Needs - The community's economic system provides a way for
its members to develop the means to acquire things that are important to
them. Usually, this means money.
5. Educational and Communication Needs - A community needs to know
more about itself and the world in which it operates. The community has
to have information and methods for developing, transmitting, and
receiving that information.

When these needs are not adequately met and discomfort to the members results,
community problems exist. As such they are needs that have not been properly addressed.
If things stay the same, the problems and discomforts will persist. The only way to get rid
of the problems or reduce them is for people to do things differently.
SOME OF THE INTERESTS IN COMMUNITY
There could be various reasons for the interest in community and yet, not all of them are
helpful for the community. Some interests shown by various agents of community
interventions are:

1. To create a support base and win votes for politicians and parties.
2. To mobilize people for some political end.
3. To improve the problem-solving capabilities and to develop the human resources towards
better conditions of living.
4. To preserve the indigenous cultural life.
5. To provide pastoral care (caring for the needs of the faith community).
6. To remedy social problems (deviance, crime).
7. To promote the national interests (population control).
SOME OF THE INTERESTS IN COMMUNITY
8. To develop infrastructure for multinational corporations’ interests or colonial power
interests (introduction of the agricultural technological products of the Multinational
Corporation, demolitions, relocations, and construction of physical structures on the
community territory).
9. To preserve the ecological and genetic or biological heritage and indigenous
technology and knowledge.
10.To implement the programs of UN and various civil groups from outside.
11.To test or develop theories on community as well as to provide information on
consumer behavior in the community or to determine the feasibility of economic
enterprises (academic).
SOME OF THE INTERESTS IN COMMUNITY
Our interest in community is to intervene in community toward its sustainable
development and it means:

1. To help the community identify its actual needs distinct from the felt needs.
2. To improve its capabilities to solve its problems.
3. To improve the human resources and potentials as well as natural resources
toward the improvement of conditions and quality of life in the community.
This involves the localization of the benefits of science and technology and
affecting social integration, social organization, cultural production, political
participation of the people and the people’s control over economic
processes.