Understanding Community Dynamics and Institutional Perspective

Actions
Community – an important adaption to
late modernity, or from a practice
perspective as a set of professional
Understanding the community refers to
activities that are of special interest
the strategic intervention and process of
because they are developed across
empowering and sustaining the
institutional boundaries, through
community based on developing their
partnerships.
resources. This is to improve existing
conditions that will improve the lives of
the people therein and realize the full
Civil Society Perspective
potential of the community.
 Community – a network of social
groups that connect, collaborate,
Definition of Community and interrelate in an organized
way of sharing common resources
and cultutre.
Social Science Perspective  Sharing a culture – members of

 A community may come in one of the community having more or

many shapes, sizes, colors, and less similarities in their way or

locations; no two (2) are alike. aspect of life.

 A community is not just the

people who are not in it.

Local Community
A “community” in some senses, may not
 A group of interacting people
even have a physical location, but be
sharing an environment.
demarcated by being a group of people
 In human communities, intnet,
with common interest.
belief, resources, preferences,
needs, risks, and other conditions
may be present and common,
affecting the identity of the
 participants and their degree of
cohesiveness.
Grassroots Community
 A grassroots movement is driven
by a community’s politics.
 Grassroots movements – often at
the local level, as many volunteers
in the community give their time
to support the local party, which
can lead to helping the national
party.
 Being a part of a social group leads
to relationships that extend and
overlap with others.
 Individual roles and status emerge
out of these produced
relationships with corresponding
expectations and functions.
Social Structure
Social structure refers to the recurring
patterns of behaviour that people create
through their interactions, their exchange
of information, and their relationships
(Nark, 1998 in Kornblum, 2000).
Functionalists emphasize that social
structure is essential because it creates
order and predictability in a society
(Parsons, 1951 in Kendall, 2003).
Theories of Social Change
Evolutionary Theory
Societies gradually move towards
increasing complexity as it learns and
devise ways to adapt to the demands of
the times and the changing environment.
Social change necessarily meant progress
to something better so that any change
without looking into good or bad is
deemed necessarily positive and beneficial
for society to involve.
Equilibrium Theory
Societies tend to move towards a state of
internal balance or homeostasis. Until this
internal state of internal balance is
reached, society continues to undergo
changes making constant adjustments
trying to stabilize it from forces that act on
it.
Conflict Theory
Economic determinism or economic
factors determine the course of social
change, which also accounts for social
class conflict, in a struggle towards control
of economic resources that bring about social, cultural, and economic
the social changes. development are relatively rapid
dynamic.

Cyclical Theory 2. Virtual Community – all online

Societies fall or lag behind and rise or groups of internet users called

advance forward depending on how they “netizens”, who share the

creatively respond and strategically cope resources of the internet and

with the challenges presented by collaborate and interact through

situations of special difficulty. online network channels with a

common culture called
cyberculture.
Classifications of Community
3. Associational-based Community –
1. Locality-based Community – found
communities of social categories
in local territories
to which its members identify
a. The State – It is a community of
with, or social organizations that
persons more or less numerous
they’re affiliated with.
living in a definite territory and
processing an independent
government of their own to which
they can render habitual
obedience.
b. Rural Community – A sparse
community with a homogenous
culture that is localized outside
the city area where social,
cultural, and economic
development and progress is
relatively slow and less dynamic.
c. Urban Community – A highly
dense community with a
heterogenous culture that is
localized in the city area where