scholarly journals Individuals, Structures, and Human Agency in Community Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Mtika
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good News ◽  
Group Norms ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Cultural Expectations ◽  
Number Of Individuals

Community development, especially in developing societies, has focused on mobilizing community members for collective action. Little attention has been paid to creative efforts of individuals engaged in transformative activities that improve their lives and from which other members of a community can learn. This paper examines how individuals creatively engage in activities that improve their households. The research, done in a rural area of northern Malawi, Africa, involved in-depth unstructured qualitative interviews of a number of individuals and careful observations of what was going on in their households. The analysis reveals evidence that creative individuals improved their households’ well-being through meaning-making, learning, and acting while navigating structural imperatives. Some of their actions were counter to social and cultural expectations, others were behavioral outliers, but all were driven by choices each made. Community development facilitators ought to consider identifying creative individuals (could be Christians) in a community, enhancing their agency, and organizing communities of practice around these individuals for other members of a community to learn from or for them to engage in the spreading of the Good News. I term this constructivist community development / evangelism and argue that it is particularly relevant in subsistent, substantive, and allocentric communities where group norms are a significant factor in people’s behavior. These group norms are important for collective action but can stifle individuals’ creativity.

Catch them Young : Role of Educational Institutions in Community Development- A Descriptive Study on the Perception of College Students in Chennai

GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 170-182
Author(s):  
Dr. R. Sundari ◽  
Ms. Sangeetha Manoj
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Average Score ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Grass Root Level

Community Development is a process of collective action taken by the members of a community to generate solutions for common problems.  The aspects of community well being namely Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural well being evolves from this type of collective action taken at multiple societal levels. (Weaver, 1971) defines community development as a process of “A public-group approach dedicated to achieving the goals of the total body politic.” Therefore, it is evident that a community can be developed through the effective participation of citizens. It is universally acceptable that community service is a vehicle for safeguarding the environment that is initiated from the participants of the community. In order to imbibe the community consciousness among the citizens, every country should “Catch them Young”. The purpose of the paper is to integrate Participative Model (Active Citizenship, Citizen Networks and Co-production) with Self-service Model (Social Governance, Societal Discipline and Accountability). National and international reviews show that the perception about the community and realisation has to be ingrained at the grass root level; this can be achieved through the participation of academic institutions. This paper is an attempt to highlight. The initiatives taken by educational institutions to imbibe social consciousness, The perceptions of students about their role in community development, and, To identify the effective Private Public Partnership areas for community building Factor analysis has been applied to identify the role of educational institutions and individual citizen’s( Students) in building community consciousness. Linear Regression had been applied in the study to measure the influence of Educational Institutions on the role of Students in building the community.  A weighted average score is awarded by the students for the potential areas of public private partnership for community development is highlighted. The results of the study provide an impact created by the institution over the students. The Study also, consolidates some of the successful community bonding and building activities carried out Academic Institutions.

scholarly journals Social Responsibility and Community Development in Vermont’s Food Business

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Conner ◽  
Rocki-Lee DeWitt ◽  
Shoshanah M. Inwood ◽  
Michael Archer
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Firm Age ◽  
Broad Array

Businesses are increasingly expected to contribute to community development and sustainability. This exploratory research examines how food and agriculturally-based Vermont businesses are defining the concept of social responsibility (SR), incorporating it into their enterprises, and linking their enterprises to their communities. We develop indicators of SR and use them to examine qualitative interviews of 20 food entrepreneurs. We find that these businesses expressed commitment to and claimed actions to contribute to a broad array of SR goals, including community (with specific mention of employee well-being and improved access to healthy foods), local economy, and the environment. In many cases the respondents cited measurable impacts their actions made such as employee retention, food access, improved farm nutrient management and support for and assistance to local businesses. Contrary to prior studies, firm age did not have a measurable impact on SR values or practices. However, we found evidence of a U-shaped relationship between SR and scale, where small and large firms were more highly engaged and medium scale ones slightly less so. Implications focus on strategies for improved metrics for validation of impacts.

WATCHING AND SEEING

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Amaka Okechukwu
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Safety ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Safety Practices ◽  
Black Neighborhood ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
Oral History Interviews

Abstract This article explores grassroots practices of community safety and security in Brooklyn, New York through a framework that centers the abolitionist practices imbedded in Black neighborhood collective action. Literature on safety and security often conflates the two concepts, not considering how grounded applications of the two may produce different outcomes and approaches to community well-being. Additionally, we know little about how Black communities build safety and security from the ground up. And while academic scholarship on abolition provides a robust theoretical foundation, more examples of how communities could and do employ police abolition are needed. Utilizing archival research and oral history interviews, I argue that a crisis of police legitimacy compelled alternatives to formal policing in New York City during the urban crisis, or the postwar period of massive urban divestment and hyper-ghettoization. These efforts included masculinized security practices such as neighborhood patrols and protests, while community safety practices included forms of neighborhood sociality grounded in feminized and queer relationships of care and concern. These efforts, which critiqued institutional racism and neglect and emerged from the indigenous knowledge base and social networks of community members, provide considerations for recovering abolitionist practices in Black neighborhood collective action and implications for building alternatives to policing. This article contributes to literature on Black communities, collective action, and abolition by offering an intersectional analysis of the various ways Black social and political engagement centers on practices of safety and security and does not always fixate on conscripting a police response.

scholarly journals Illuminating Existential Meaning: A New Approach in the Study of Retirement

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 196-214
Author(s):  
Mattias Bengtsson ◽  
Marita Flisbäck
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Condition ◽  
Life Transition ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Life Course Transitions ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
Existential Sociology

Current discussions on the importance of retirement are largely built on statistical analyses of longitudinal data showing that well-being seldom changes from before to after entering retirement, but is rather mainly dependent on the individual’s social resource position. In contrast, qualitatively oriented researchers underline that the retirement process is a complex life transition that needs to be further illuminated. To do this, however, we need to advance new theoretical and methodological perspectives. In this article, an existential sociology approach is outlined, emphasizing the multifaceted spectra of lived experiences and meaning-making in the retirement process. The phenomenological approaches of existential sociology allow us to consider how the exit from working life is created in the processes of motion rather than as expressions of static positions. A merit of this approach is that retirement as an empirical case may say something general about being in transition as a basic social condition. In the article, we discuss how a socio-biographical methodology, based on longitudinal qualitative interviews, helps us capture how existential meaning is formed and reformed in the ambiguous situations which arise in similar life-course transitions. Theoretically, we especially draw on concepts from the existential anthropologist Jackson and the phenomenological tradition of existential philosophers such as Arendt and Heidegger.

The People Beyond the Tag

2019 ◽  
pp. 61-97
Author(s):  
Shareen Hertel
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Stakeholder Consultation ◽  
Subjective Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
The People ◽  
Grassroots Level ◽  
The Town

Chapter 4 analyzes the receptivity of local community members in the town of Villa Altagracia (Dominican Republic) toward the practice of stakeholder consultation. It draws on original qualitative interviews with residents of this manufacturing community where collegiate apparel is produced (i.e., clothing with college logos) and workers at one company (Alta Gracia Apparel) are paid triple the prevailing minimum wage. The chapter introduces the concept of “subjective socioeconomic status,” which enables us to compare how different respondents rate their own well-being compared to that of other people in their community. Villa Altagracia has a significant unemployment problem, and the surveys convey the challenges experienced by people beyond the factory’s employees. Listening to people at the grassroots level illuminates the limits of business and human rights promotion strategies, the structural roots of poverty, and the inherent complexity of poor communities central to global supply chains.

Community Health Action Model: Health Promotion by the Community

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 182-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances E. Racher ◽  
Robert C. Annis
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Evaluation Framework ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Action Model ◽  
Health Action ◽  
Health And Well Being

The goal of the Community Health Action (CHA) model is to depict community health promotion processes in a manner that can be implemented by community members to achieve their collectively and collaboratively determined actions and outcomes to sustain or improve the health and well-being of their community; the community as a whole, for the benefit of all. The model is unique in its ability to merge the community development process with a compatible community assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation framework. The CHA model supports community participation leading to community-engaged assessment and change. In this article, the CHA model is depicted, its genesis described, and its utility demonstrated.

Corporate social responsibility and its prospect for community development in Ethiopia

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 376-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruk Degie ◽  
Wassie Kebede
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Corporate Social

This study uncovers the experiences of LG’s community development project in Ethiopia. A total of 24 community members participated in the study. Qualitative interviews were conducted to collect data on the experiences, satisfaction and complaints of community members on the community development project of LG. Findings indicate LG’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) project is tuned to the needs of the communities, reflecting a deviation from the mainstream CSR agenda. The study shows CSR becomes an important interface between government and local communities. The study concludes that the project can be exemplary in that it demonstrates business corporations have the capacity to address the pressing needs of communities.

Culture, Memory, and Narrative Self-Making

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Wang ◽  
Qingfang Song ◽  
Jessie Bee Kim Koh
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Narrative Self ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Cultural Expectations ◽  
The One

Narrative entails an active act of sense making through which individuals discern meaning from their experiences in line with their cultural expectations. In this article, we outline a theoretical model to demonstrate that narrative can be simultaneously used to examine cognitive processes underlying remembering on the one hand and to study the process of meaning-making that holds implications for self and well-being on the other. We argue that these two approaches, oftentimes overlapping and inseparable, provide critical means to understand the central role of culture in shaping memory and self-identity. We further demonstrate that the integration of culture in narrative research can, in turn, greatly enrich our understanding of the cognitive and social underpinnings of narrative.

scholarly journals Community Development and Older Men’s Programming: An International Case Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Roger ◽  
Mary Anne Nurmi ◽  
Nathan J Wilson ◽  
Corey S Mackenzie ◽  
John L Oliffe
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Resources ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Men's Groups ◽  
Development Approach ◽  
Development Perspective ◽  
Photovoice Methodology

A growing body of research points to men’s groups as a benefit to communities because of their volunteerism and community-based programming. Spaces for older and retired men’s continued participation are provided including meaningful initiatives through these community resources. Little research, however, has explored groups for older men from a community development perspective. The purpose of this article is to describe a case study using Photovoice methodology with two men’s groups from Canada and two from Australia. We discuss men’s group participants’ perceptions of their groups’ contributions to the well-being of its members and the broader community, from a community development approach using photos as a key part of the study. Findings revealed older men’s volunteerism towards events and maintenance of community parks and museums, as well as mentorship activities, contributed to the well-being of a range of community members, while fostering a sense of accomplishment, friendship, and other benefits.

A Qualitative Study Exploring Harmful Cultural Practices and HIV Stigma in North Central Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Bala Augustine Nalah ◽  
Azlinda Azman ◽  
Paramjit Singh Jamir Singh
Keyword(s):  
Hiv Infection ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Hiv Stigma ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
North Central ◽  
Harmful Cultural Practices

Harmful cultural practices have psychosocial implications on stigmatization and vulnerability to HIV infection among HIV positive living in North Central Nigeria. To understand this, we conducted qualitative interviews with purposively selected 20 diagnosed HIV positive to explore how culture influences stigmatization and HIV transmission. Data was collected using audio-recorder, transcribed, and analyzed through thematic analysis using ATLAS.ti8 software to code and analyze interview transcripts. The coded data were presented using thematic network analysis to visualize the theme, sub-themes, and quotations in a model. The findings reveal that lack of education was a significant determinant for the continual practice of harmful cultural rites, thereby increasing the risk of HIV infection and stigmatization. Hence, six cultural facilitators have been identified to include female genital mutilation, lack of education, tribal marks and scarification, postpartum sexual abstinence during breastfeeding, sexual intercourse during menstruation, and gender inequality, polygamy, and inheritance law. We conclude that educational teachings and advocacy campaigns be organized in rural schools and public places on the implications of harmful cultural practice to health and psychological well-being. We recommend that the social workers and behavioral scientists should collaborate with other agencies to employ a behavioral-based intervention in eliminating cultural practices and HIV stigma.

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