<p>When we speak of community development, we often gloss over the conceptual fuzziness of the term “community” (let alone “community development”). At a very simple level, when we speak of community development we are speaking descriptively of communities of place, whether they be neighborhoods, villages, cities, or regions. There is some sense of territory, shared space, and interdependence. A recent article in the journal Community Development by David Mataritta-Cascante and Mark Brennan titled “Conceptualizing Community Development in the Twenty-First Century” (which I highly recommend) reminds of some of the standard conceptual components of what we mean by community.</p> <p></p> <p>Social scientists by-and-large have studied community in terms of structures and systems of relationships. In other words, communities are comprised of relationship structures among people in a given place, as well as groups and institutions that emerge to help meet the collective needs of the population. Community has also been studied in terms of its components. The assets-based approach discussed often in this blog is the most widely utilized model in this respect, breaking down communities in terms of physical, human, economic, and social assets.</p> <p>In addition to thinking of community in terms of social structures or various kinds of assets, community can also be thought of as a process. Field theory, most importantly advanced decades ago by Harold Kaufman and Kenneth Wilkinson, emphasizes social interaction as the most important aspect of community. The idea here is that communities of place are comprised of several different fields of interaction (e.g. education, business, or religion), but “the community field” [...]</p>
Faculty Coordinators
