Theory, Practice, and Community Development

Mark Brennan, Jeffrey Birdger, Theodore Alter, Mark Brennan, Jeffrey Birdger, Theodore R. Alter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135038908
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Humangeographie

For many scholars, the study of community and community development is at a crossroads. Previously dynamic theories appear not to have kept pace with the major social changes of our day. Given our constantly shifting social reality we need new ideas and research that pushes the boundaries of our extant community theories. Theory, Practice, and Community Development stretches the traditional boundaries and applications of well-established community development theory, and establishes new theoretical approaches rooted in new disciplines and new perspectives on community development.

Expanded from a special issue of the journal Community Development, Theory, Practice, and Community Development collects previously published and widely cited essays, as well as new theoretical and empirical research in community development. Compiled by the editors of Community Development, the essays feature topics as varied as placemaking, democratic theory and rural organizing. Theory, Practice, and Community Development is vital for scholars and practitioners coming to grips with the rapidly changing definition of community.

1
Introduction

Theory, Practice, and Community Development

Mark A. Brennan, Paloma Z.C. Frumento, Jeffrey C. Bridger, and Theodore R. Alter

Over the past decade a variety of debates and discussions among community development professionals, academics, and practitioners concerning the current state of community theory have pointed to the need to explore the issue more systematically. In response, a special issue of Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society was produced in 2009 (Volume 39, Issue 1) to bring together a wide range of theoretical and empirical articles that expand our theoretical understanding of community in contemporary life. This special issue proved widely popular, with articles being used extensively in both education and practice settings. More importantly, this special issue further ignited the call for the theoretical advances needed to understand our rapidly changing communities. These issues and concerns were the impetus for this book. Bringing together select articles from the special issue with newly commissioned work, the theoretical explorations presented in this book push forward our understanding of community and the various dynamics that contribute to its emergence and persistence.

The timing for this book is particularly relevant. For many scholars, the study of community and community development is at a crossroads. Previously, dynamic theories appear not to have kept pace with the major social, environmental, and technological changes of our day. Emerging perspectives, attempting to explain rapid social, environmental, and political changes, have often strayed from the logic and conceptualization essential to significant theoretical development. Given our constantly shifting social reality, we need new ideas and research that push the boundaries of extant community theories. Making such a claim does not necessarily mean a wholesale abandonment of existing theories and methods; it does, however, imply they must be adapted and further developed to meet new social realities. An ongoing and open discussion regarding the current state of community theory can only benefit community scholars and practitioners. It is particularly important to develop theoretical frameworks that are practically useful for applied efforts to enhance the well-being of our communities.

As is the case in any field of inquiry, this book also emerged out of the often contentious debates and provincialism that stem from our professional passions for our own theoretical perspectives. While debates are healthy, we must take care to ensure that they do not stifle and undermine our common dedication to enhancing and supporting community development. When certain theoretical perspectives become too institutionalized into a discipline, in essence becoming a de facto orthodoxy, they hinder progressive debates by inadvertently playing a gate-keeping function within our professional societies and journals. Equally important, their status often makes them off-limits for critical inquiry, leaving them open to failure in a rapidly changing world. This ossification is problematic in academic settings; it is devastating in applied practice. We must not lose sight of the fact that our development of theory is not an academic exercise, but is the cornerstone of effective practice on which communities and residents depend.

Thus, the book has two main goals: 1) to elucidate and stretch the traditional boundaries and applications of the well-established theories and 2) to catalyze discussion about how new and existing frameworks can be applied to the complex community settings where people live and work. To meet these goals the book is organized into three sections. The first section provides a context for defining and understanding community in contemporary society. The second section explores community dynamics in the broader geographical environments in which they are situated. The third, and final, section explores the importance of community for local decision making, democratic participation, and social change.

Current Perspectives, Future Theoretical Directions, and Calls to Action

Historically, one of the most prominent themes in the community literature has been the theoretical significance of place. Indeed, place has often been used interchangeably or synonymously with community. Over time, and particularly during the second half of the twentieth century, the connection between place and community became increasingly tenuous as advances in transportation and communication blurred the boundaries of once well-defined localities. Our social networks, service provision, employment, and other activities now occur in broader, more dispersed areas. The twenty-first century has brought technological advances that further confuse the distinction between community and place; physical or geographic constraints on social interaction are all but obsolete. The authors included in this book draw attention to the increasingly complicated relationship between place and community.

Section One begins with Ted Bradshaw’s “The Post-Place Community: Contributions to the Debate about the Definition of Community,” which raises and champions the issue of ‘the post-place community’. With this concept, Bradshaw divorces place from the other traditional elements used to define community – solidarity, common identity, and shared norms – to argue for the continued relevance of Gemeinschaft-type relations. He draws empirical support from the University of Chicago General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center, which suggests that while people attribute increasing importance to social relations outside of their local communities, they still also remain attached to these local communities. For this reason, while place is no longer a necessary aspect of community, it may play a central role in structuring social relations in some communities. Bradshaw further explains that the relationship between community and place has become a more dynamic one; while place was previously seen to have a unidirectional influence on the formation of community, communities now may also influence place, given “that any place may be influenced by people having contacts at a local or global scale, and individuals at the global scale also participate at the local” (p.XX). This more nuanced conceptualization of community has important implications for policy; Bradshaw suggests that community developers should work to strengthen bridges between places and the larger social and economic networks with which residents may be involved as a means for generating civic engagement at “whatever scale makes sense for the common good” (p.XX).

Jeff S. Sharp and Jill K. Clark also tackle the relationship between place and community in their exploration of exurbia, or what is sometimes referred to as the rural-urban fringe, in “Settling at the Margins: Exurbia and Community Sociology.” Some have suggested that this zone of settlement is too urban to attract the interest of rural social scientists and too rural to attract the attention of urban scholars. The authors argue that exurban research offers potential insights for both fields, given the questions that can be raised with regard to residential preference, land use and growth management, governance, and the possibility for the emergence of community. This last issue is particularly relevant to community theory as a whole, given the diversity of exurban residents, the relative absence of a shared history among newcomers and longtime local residents, and the diffused patterns of employment, service acquisition, and organizational membership.

The authors begin with a detailed literature review that considers defining and operationalizing exurbia, distinguishing the concept from suburbia, the role of the invasion/succession process in fostering conflict and shifting attitudes and cultures in previously rural areas, and the policy implications for land-use planning and growth management. To contextualize these themes, and to further illustrate the size of the population implicated in and impacted by exurban development, the authors use US Census data from Ohio. The remainder of the chapter focuses on three future directions for research based upon the themes identified earlier in the chapter and the authors’ applied extension work in Ohio. In this section, they also consider the future of exurbia itself: the extent to which exurban development might return following the current economic downturn and whether the social trends that have given rise to exurbia are likely to change or evolve.

In “Community Generalizing Structure Dimensions: Clarifying Fundamental Community Interaction Field Theory Concept” Peter F. Korsching and Cheryl Davidson also seek to define and operationalize the essential linkages that hold community together. They consider what Wilkinson (1991) terms the ‘generalizing structure’ in his interactional field theory of community. This is a structure of linkages among individuals, organizations, and agencies that integrate, coordinate, reinforce, and mobilize the common elements of their differentiated special interests for the community’s welfare. When local interaction occurs specifically for the benefit of the community, it builds a generalizing structure. Despite its importance to field theory, this remains a highly abstract concept that has not been adequately defined and clarified enough to be an analytically useful tool for understanding community organization and action, conducting community research, and implementing community development projects.

To operationalize the concept, the authors propose measureable dimensions of community generalizing structure. Building on Wilkinson (1991), they suggest that the dimensions of this generalizing structure are distributive justice, open communication, tolerance, collective action, and communication. These dimensions describe the nature of the relationship between the community and the social well-being of its population. The authors hypothesize that a strong generalizing community structure is perceived by residents as being a positive environment for both business and personal life. They conclude by discussing the results in terms of their implications for community interaction field theory and contributions to the literature on community attachment and participation.

Section Two of this book explores potential for community development action(s) in the broader geographical environments in which we live. This section begins with “An Interactional Approach to Place-Based Development.” In this chapter, Jeffrey Bridger and Ted Alter note that globalization that has significantly reshaped and in some instances made obsolete the local social and economic structures that typified rural America through most of its history. Given this uncertain environment, economic development policies that may have worked in the past are no longer relevant. In their place is an emerging consensus that development must be more place-based and focused on enhancing regional and place competitiveness. The authors explore this strategy and identify some of its most serious shortcomings – especially for rural areas. The chapter proposes an interactional approach that integrates economic, environmental, and social well-being.

In “The Power of Community,” Mark Brennan and Glenn Israel explore one of the most neglected facets in the community development literature: power. The authors provide a conceptual model for understanding the context and emergence of community power and the responses to power by local elites and stakeholders. While formally and informally recognized as being central to community action, research and theoretical literature provides little insight into the processes behind the emergence of community power. Power is usually presented in terms of a culmination of community actions that lead to its more equitable distribution. Less often considered are the processes and mechanisms through which civic engagement and capacity building activities enable citizens to gain power. The authors explore the ways in which power is conceptualized at this level, as a component of community development and social change. The authors provide a theoretical framework, based on an interactional field theoretical perspective, for better understanding the processes by which citizens gain entrée to power, as well as how they interact with elites that might otherwise limit the emergence of local capacity. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications for community development.

“The Tamaqua Paradox: How History Shapes Social Capital and Local Economic Development Efforts,” by Jeffrey Bridger, Paloma Frumento, and Ted Alter, also focuses on the processes that structure community power and impact community action. Specifically, they examine the usefulness of social capital as a tool for understanding community action. As part of a larger USDA study considering six rural communities in the state, the authors trace the historical development of Tamaqua, a community located in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. Despite evidence from interview data suggesting that Tamaqua had the highest levels of bridging social capital and economic development activeness of the communities included in the study, household survey data suggested that the community scored very low on both bonding and bridging social capital. In order to understand this paradox, the authors consider the historical context for contemporary social relations and community action. They conclude that social capital theory is inadequate for reconciling these conflicting views of local life. Instead, they argue, narrative analysis provides for a more nuanced consideration of the specific power relations that have resulted from a history of fractionalization and periodic collaboration.

The third, and final, section explores local decision making, democratic participation, and social change. The three chapters included in this section call to action citizens, scholars, and experts to take a more active role in these areas. This section begins with a chapter by Tony Varley and Chris Curtin, “Populism, Power, and Rural Community Development,” which explores populism and what they term ‘underdog’ politics in a rural community development context. Underdog politics share two features of populism as it has traditionally been theorized and practiced. First, rural community interests are characterized as relatively powerless vis-à-vis external forces (often cities and the state). Second, advocates of populism argue that collective and state action can become forces of countervailing power capable of furthering rural interests. Varley and Curtin explore these two features with a view toward investigating the adequacy of ‘populism’ as a descriptive and interpretive category.

They begin by constructing a framework based on four oppositions describing urban power and rural powerlessness commonly associated with the term ‘populism.’ Here, they make a clear distinction between ‘power over,’ which describes Lukes’s well-known second and third faces of power, and ‘power to,’ which describes the ability of collective action to support the interests of disadvantaged actors and generate structural change. The authors then describe two ideal-type scenarios through which collective and state actions may foster “populist and underdog community development and ‘participative’ forms of pro-community state intervention” (p.XX). These are the radical and the pragmatic approaches, which they frame using conflict and consensus models of social structure. Despite their differences, both approaches are similar in that claims to power, authority, and legitimacy are based in the conscious construction of an underdog, or disadvantaged, identity. The authors conclude with a frank assessment of the utility of ‘populism’ as a descriptive and interpretive term. They ultimately assert that the populist label is freighted with too much negative baggage to serve as a useful descriptive term. However, the framework of four oppositions that they construct could aid in its interpretive value.

In contrast to Varley and Curtin’s emphasis on external actors representing community interests and initiating social change, David Mathews of the Kettering Foundation takes up the issue of local residents’ self-representation through deliberative democracy. In “What Kind of Democracy Informs Community Development?” Mathews offers a unique insight that bridges academic and practice settings. He develops an ideal-type framework for the emergence of democracy at the community level based on the experience of the Kettering Foundation and the academic work it has sponsored. Unlike Bradshaw, Mathews argues for the continued, central relevance of place-based identities and communities: “… none of us lives in a petri dish divorced from place, physical, and human” (p.XX).

Mathews’s conceptualization of democracy is structured by classical Greek theory and a deliberative model of participation. He argues that democratic practices involve citizens working together, driven by a common political will and set of values. These practices include identifying and naming problems, framing ways to deal with these problems, making decisions through deliberation, identifying and committing resources, organizing complementary acting, and public learning. According to Mathews, democratic practices can help to address many of the major issues that experts and practitioners identify as barriers to effective citizen participation. He illustrates this through the composite of Suggsville, based on work in more than 50 communities observed over 30 years. Through this model, Mathews addresses the potential for conflict that is inherent to settings marked by poverty and resource deprivation. He emphasizes the importance of creating processes for reaching consensus, while acknowledging that consensus is not always a realistic outcome. Mathews also suggests a more reflexive and equitable role for scholars, experts, practitioners, and citizens, one in which all of these actors work together to build better communities. Ultimately he asserts that, when employed in a holistic and context-relevant manner, democratic practices can be a positive force for both solidarity and agency even in the most challenged communities.

Solidarity and agency are also foundational to Ronald J. Hustedde and Jacek Ganowicz’s approach to community development theory and practice. In “The Basics: What’s Essential about Theory for Community Development Practice?,” the authors provide an insightful overview of the often disconnected central strands of community theory, and argue that these theories have an important bearing on practice that has been widely overlooked. They contend that the multidisciplinary field of community development needs common theoretical concepts to help understand events and develop appropriate strategies and tools.

The authors argue that effective practice will take into account structure, power, and shared meaning. They relate these concerns to three classical theoretical frameworks: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. These seemingly disparate theories can be brought together in a fruitful dialogue when viewed through the lens of Giddens’ structuration theory, which links both macro and micro approaches through a meso-level analysis. Giddens describes the meso-level as modalities, or cultural patterns that actors use to structure and guide their behavior. Modalities are important because they can be used to influence the macro and micro levels of change. The potential for simultaneous stability and change at this level resolves the seemingly irreconcilable differences between structural functionalism and conflict theory, and the capacity for individual actors to influence modalities through their behaviors more clearly connects symbolic interactionism to each of these macro theories. Hustedde and Ganowicz view this model as particularly useful for practice because modalities can be mobilized to do everything from developing new structures to altering power relations and resolving local conflicts. By utilizing structuration theory, practitioners can identify local modalities and work with local people to use them for community development purposes.

Conclusion

The chapters in this book represent a continued refinement and advancement of our understanding of the theoretical basis of community and community development. Each author brings a unique perspective to these elusive concepts. Despite their difference...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• series
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Series Editor's Introduction
• 1 Introduction Theory, Practice, and Community Development
• Section one Defining and Understanding Community in Contemporary Society
• Section two Community Dynamics
• Section three Community, Local Decision Making, Democratic Participation, and Social Change
• Index