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SOC 531: Community Organization

SOC 531: Community Organization. Second Discussion. What Did We Learn From Group Discussion. What is a Community? Place might not be physical or material as Hogan (2003) defines it and DuBois and Lynds seem to assume Discursive space is dialogical (a discussion or conversation)

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SOC 531: Community Organization

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  1. SOC 531: Community Organization Second Discussion

  2. What Did We Learn From Group Discussion • What is a Community? • Place might not be physical or material as Hogan (2003) defines it and DuBois and Lynds seem to assume • Discursive space is dialogical (a discussion or conversation) • In either case, however, there are boundaries that are semi-permeable • But discursive space is bounded normatively

  3. What We Learned • We seemed to be moving toward a socially constructed conception of community • Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities • Henri Lefebre, The Production of Space • Mark Gottdiener, The Social Production of Urban Space • But it is not clear that materialist and socially constructed are antithetical approaches: more on this later, with Walton

  4. What we Need to Consider • What is the essential, foundational, defining nature of community? • Park and Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Sociology (Chicago, 1921) • Society: “either … a sum of institutions or … a collection of persons … sum total of instrumentalities … which enable individuals to carry on life activities” (p. 162) • Community: “societies and social groups … considered from point of view of [their] geographic distribution” • But individual must “participate in the common life of the community” (p. 163)

  5. Essential (continued) • Case for Place/Space • 7th Ward and Middletown are places/spaces • People live and work in these places/spaces • They “participate in the common life of the community” • But they are not necessarily societies • 7th Ward is nested and dependent upon Philadelphia for lots of things, including work and government • Even Middletown is nested within State of Indiana

  6. Essentials (continued) • These communities are social groups • Families and peer groups, friendship networks, or face book “friends” are social groups • But Park and Burgess would not consider them communities unless we think about them as geographically bound • Their normative character would be essential in order for them to be social groups (as opposed to plant communities)

  7. Essentials (continued) • But are norms essential or just typical? • As social action, more or less organized, there is, at least, some degree of inter-personal or more macro (group or organizational) influence • The New Chauncey Neighborhood has a neighborhood association • Connolly Street (between Robinson and Rose) and Lincoln Street (between Robinson and Rose) have block parties • And there are rules about garbage, lawns, noise, kids, and pets

  8. Essentials (continued) • Formal organization or mores versus folkways might be considered variable • But there should be some sort of social relationships or social action (action that takes others into account: Max Weber) • Otherwise, this is simply a biological or ecological plant and animal community (which it is, of course)

  9. Essential (continued) • But without social action it is not a sociologically relevant community • Even shunning is taking others into account • So students and professors are part of the same community • Just like blacks and whites • Just like men and women • Just like parents and children

  10. Essential (continued) • If landlords and tenants, employers and employees, etc., are part of the same community, then there are conflicting interests as well as norms • There might even be normative conflict • There might be more conflict than consensus on norms • But interests and shared beliefs and values seem to variable rather than essential

  11. Essential (continued) • How about life and work? • Some work where others live • 7th Ward: more intersectional • Middletown: more overlapping • How do you classify people? • When introduced, what information is sought, questions asked? • When do you feel like part of the same community?

  12. The Case for Work • Workers predominate in Middletown • 43% are employed • 23% homemakers • 19% students • 15% dependent population • “the money medium of exchange and the cluster of activities associated with its acquisition drastically condition the other activities of the people.” (p. 21)

  13. The Case for (Home) Life • Middletown workers (43%) spend most of nonworking time at home • Middletown “housewives” 23% spend most of their time working in these homes • Even school children spend much time at home • “Next to [workplace] most apparent locus of the lives of the community” (p. 93)

  14. Need to consider (continued) • What is typical, variable, or subject to dispute in community studies? • Interests • Values • Institutions • Type of social activities • Bedroom community • Central Business District

  15. Parting Comments • On racial communities • Are these categories without networks? • Are these salient categories within which networks are formed and between which networks are not formed? • Are these intersecting communities (blacks and whites in 7th Ward) • See Hogan, “Class, Race, and Gender Inequality,” Race, Gender & Class, 2001, 8, 2, pp. 61-93.

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