COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, SOLIDARITY, and CITIZENSHIP

Community Dynamics and Processes (Lesson 5)

The dominant analytical approaches in studying community dynamics and processes focus on community
power relations, leadership, and social change.

POWER RELATIONS
In examining power relations within a community, it is necessary to investigate the critical actors,
stakeholders, and the resources they control. These actors can broadly be distinguished as legal-authoritative
decision-makers and influencers.
Legal-authoritative decision-makers are individuals or bodies whose authority is based on formal rules and
institutions. City mayors, legislative council members, and barangay captains are examples of legal-
authoritative decision-makers in Philippine communities. Typically, legal-authoritative decision-makers occupy
positions of authority through legally mandated processes like elections or through formal political
appointments.
Influencers, on the hand, are individuals or groups who do not have direct authority, but are capable of
shaping decisions that affect the community. Influencers can propose, pressure, and affect decisions made by
legal-authoritative decision-makers according to their interests or agenda. Analyzing community power
relations can also include an examination of the positional arrangements of actors and groups based on the
resources that they control or possess, the extent of their reputation, and their degree of social participation.

LEADERSHIP
In the context of a community, leadership refers to the processes and qualities of command and decisiveness
with regard to the necessary actions that ensure the welfare of the community. Community leaders are
individuals selected, nominated, and appointed as stewards, vanguards, and champions of issues relevant to a
community. These individuals demonstrate skills, capacities, and attitudes that are critical in steering the
community toward their goals and aspirations. Community leaders occupy positions of high reputation and
authority within the community. As such, community leaders occupy important positions in the hierarchy of
power within a community. Community leaders have the ability to mobilize capacities to influence critical
actors and local partners in solving problems that confront a community.

SOCIAL CHANGE
Social change occurs for a number of reasons. It can be due to the opposing and contradicting forces within a
community leading to the alteration of its conditions and structural dimensions. It may encompass a range of
socio-civic outcomes, such as the increased understanding of the community, attitudinal change, changes in
the configuration of civic participation, the building of public trust, or changes in the policy that redistributes
the community’s material resources.
Social change is indicated in the changes and shifts in the attributes and characteristics of groups within the
community, such as their demographic character, their control of resources and wealth, or their attitudes and
outlooks. In the community, social change may be observed when there is a significant and observable
difference between past and current conditions in community life. Social change is said to occur, for instance,
when there is an observable rise in education and literacy in a community.