Concepts and Perspective of Community PDF

CONCEPTS AND PERSPECTIVE OF COMMUNITY What is Community? The word community in its literal form is defined by two characteristics: location (a group of individuals bound within a specific geographic location) and social identification (an example of collective that identifies common traits, goals an...

CONCEPTS AND PERSPECTIVE OF COMMUNITY What is Community? The word community in its literal form is defined by two characteristics: location (a group of individuals bound within a specific geographic location) and social identification (an example of collective that identifies common traits, goals and customs). A community is a living social entity and goes beyond the old categorization of space as its primary definition. More than a space, a community is made up of people: you and I. Much like a living organism, you may think of people as living cells that make up an organic being. People within the community act in the same way and of same importance. Like cells, we need to support life. Our society itself has life, has vibrancy, and every single one is as integral to support this structure as everybody else. Just like an organic being, a community takes on different periods of evolution as it continues to survive. The environment, where the community is in, molds the collective in accordance to the demands of survival. While the composition of the community is by default created optimal social composition and form. This synergy between the self, community, and the environment seems to be organic; yet in practice, this is the challenge that confronts all communities in general. The main obstacle is to compromise all these actors, trivialities, and circumstances into an effective social machinery composed of living parts. THE BASICS OF A COMMUNITY SELF- HELP The concept of self-help is about how individuals seek personal development without the help of others. However, self-help defines a community once each individual wants and needs intersect, therefore justifying a need to unify. It is assumed that people are bound to seek self- help in their own lives, and in their journey, find common avenues for cooperation and partnerships among others and therefore lay the foundations for capacity building. COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP Ownership, in this sense, is the level of commitment and accountability that an individual has for the community. This can be summed up by the level of involvement the community and its members hold in the most basic operational structures (governmental or nongovernmental, formal or informal) of the commune. Problems within communities are shared just as resources and opportunities. We must never forget we are all stakeholders and are bound by the same fate of the commune. Ownership, some may argue, is a choice but in reality, ownership is a necessity for the members of the community if they aspire to improve their current situation. INCLUSION While participation is the key, inclusion is one of the aspects of the community that is integral in binding the collective into a whole. As a form of social assembly, the personalities within a community are different and unique. In respect to culture, race, religion, and other identifiable social identities, one person is unique as to the other. Moreover, inclusions echo the need for the community to be compromising and tolerant of these differences. A community should always consider not only the needs of the majority but critically, the needs of the minority that are often neglected or overlooked. This can be solved by using more objective instruments of inquiry and a wider view that reality exists outside the confines of the majority. Inclusion is all about conciliation that reaches beyond norms of collective understanding wherein the goal is to reach social equity among its members. ACCESS AND EQUITY These are the two goals that a commune must strive for to create a better society. Access and equity imply the ease in which various individuals and groups can attain the basic necessities and resources. They push for a just allocation of goods and opportunities that is without discrimination and prejudice toward people. Significantly, they provide power and social protection among its citizens through the continued improvement of its structures under political, economic, sociocultural, technological, legal, and environmental aspects. THE COMMUNITY AS A MOVEMENT A community is more than just a collective. It acts much like a living entity that takes on life. Living within the imaginations of its members, a community also embodies a perspective, identity, and stand, much like a social movement. To put it simply, a social movement is more issue-specific and may exist primarily for its own purpose, while a community may embody several social movements within its own ecosystem. To look deeper in its dynamics, let us focus on its important ideals and how it comes to fruition. Through the issues and concerns that are shared among its members, advocacies are formed by the community and its leaders. To improve and garner support, communities try to garner support from other individuals or groups which are aligned with their worldview. As compared to social movements, communities are made up of various advocacy clusters that try to supplement the ongoing efforts of the government. Advocacies include multitude of topics where people are compelled to push for value-specific agendas that are shared through their supporters. Formations are created with the organic networking of actors that later on find commonalities and avenues for cooperation and partnerships. Underpinning these efforts is the spirit of collaboration where groups and individuals from various walks of life come together to form linkages that are important for mobilization and value creation. Partnership can take form between individuals or groups of various backgrounds that share a common identification, but at the same time. Contribute on different levels to solve problems and overcome obstacles. Embracing this kind of diversity is critical in building networks that last and work under various circumstances and challenges. Standing on the foundation of advocacies and networking is the hope for social action. At the end of the day, the community hopes to address the issues of the status quo through the combined efforts of actors. Planning, conceptualization, operationalization, and implementation of action will not be possible without the political will of actors toward meeting general compromise to effect of social change. The community is a movement that cannot dismissed as external to the realities that we hold our own. We are in fact, the community; our personal worldviews and realities are directly derived from the collective with which we identify ourselves in sharing a common identity, we also share the same fate.