Community Analysis and Practice: Toward a

Concentrating on three main themes-environmental complexity, community as the target of intervention, and commitment to social justice-Community Theory and Practice updates and expands the current boundaries of thinking about community organization. Each theme is developed according to four sequential steps. First, evolving definitions and theories of community are examined as the author develops a multi-dimensional assessment model for communalism as a target of change. Next, crucial studies demonstrating the influence of community contexts on residents' behavior are reviewed, as is the impact of economic, political, and urban restructuring on such localities. Following this discussion, the author examines and evaluates community experiments and professional practice in the United States, while the last section argues for the need to recreate civil societies based on networks of marginalized communities, particularly in poor areas. A potent and provocative exploration of community organization andintervention, Community Theory and Practice aims to encourage critical thought and provoke discussion by merging theory, praxis, and recommendations for social change. Jospehina Figueira-McDonough expands the current conception of community intervention, and in doing so inspires novel ways of viewing and organizing communities for the future. This book is an important resource for social work students, educators, and practitioners, as well as those who work in the areas of sociology, urban studies, community organization and development, and criminology, and other areas of social study and policy.

Josefina Figueira McDonough, Ph.D. is Professor of Justice Studies and Social Work at Arizona State University.

Introduction	p. xi
Evolving Definitions and Theories of Communities	p. xii
The Influence of Communities on Behavior and the Influence of Economic, Political, and Urban Restructuring on Localities	p. xii
What Have We Learned from Experience and How Does This Fit With the Proposed Approach?	p. xiv
Grounding Civil Society in the Community	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Community Construction and Social Change: In Search of a Working Definition	p. 1
The Rural-Urban Divide	p. 2
Gemeinschaft: The "Natural" Community	p. 2
The Persistence of the Gemeinschaft Ideology	p. 4
Alternative Conceptions of Community	p. 5
Personal Communities as Pseudo-Gemeinschaft	p. 5
Community as Society: Response to the Growth of Dependence and Centralization	p. 6
Revisiting the Residential Community and Defining "Communalism"	p. 8
Is Place of Residence Indifferent in Contemporary Society?	p. 9
Adding Dimensions to the Territorial Community	p. 9
Territorial Community as a Multidimensional Variable: "Communalism"	p. 10
Implications for Theory and Practice	p. 12
Theoretical Implications	p. 13
Practice Implications	p. 14
Dimensions of Communalism: A Structural Framework	p. 17
Dimensions Salient to Gemeinschaft Theories: The Power of the Informal Organization	p. 17
Exchange	p. 18
Attachment	p. 20
The Role of Local Organizations in the Structure of Territorial Communalism	p. 21
Exchange	p. 23
Attachment	p. 24
The Growth of Interdependence and the Embedded Community	p. 24
Informal External Bridges	p. 25
Formal External Bridges	p. 25
An Analytic Framework for the Structure of Territorial Communities	p. 26
The Population Component of the Analytic Framework	p. 28
Poverty	p. 29
Mobility	p. 30
Ethnicity	p. 30
Density and Crowding	p. 31
The Relationship Between Population and the Organizational Dimensions	p. 32
Poverty, Formal Organizations, and External Bridges	p. 33
Mobility, External Bridges, and Informal Networks	p. 34
A Population-Organization Typology	p. 35
Heuristic Applications of the Population-Organization Framework	p. 39
Community Types and the Prediction of Delinquent Rates	p. 40
Implications of Community Analysis of Social Problems for Intervention	p. 45
An Example of the Development and Expansion of the Multivariate Framework	p. 48
Gender Differences: Mechanisms, Normative Changes, and Demographic Structure	p. 49
The Salience of Informal Controls in the Reproduction of Gender Differences	p. 49
The Spread of Normative Gender Equality	p. 50
The Structural Consequences of Sex Ratio	p. 51
Integration of Gender Differentiation Dimensions in the Community Model	p. 53
Types of Control and Permeability of Boundaries	p. 53
Types of Female Delinquency in Low Sex Ratio Communities	p. 55
Concluding Comments	p. 58
Focusing on Community as the Unit of Analysis: Varieties of Research	p. 61
Research Parameters	p. 61
Neighborhood Operationalization	p. 61
The Place of Community in Theories of the Underclass	p. 63
Multifactor Structural Explanations	p. 65
The Dependent Variables: Deviant Behaviors of Young People	p. 66
Community Research on Obstacles to the Social Integration of Youth	p. 67
School Dropout	p. 68
Ethnographic Studies	p. 68
Longitudinal Surveys Linked to Communities of Residence	p. 68
Communities as Units of Analysis	p. 69
Multiple Methods of Studying Communities	p. 71
Teenage Motherhood	p. 74
Ethnographic Studies	p. 75
Surveys and Community Information	p. 75
Community Units of Analysis and Health Statistics	p. 77
Focus Groups	p. 77
Juvenile Delinquency	p. 79
Dropping out and the Delinquency Connection	p. 80
Community Context and Organizational Measures	p. 81
Distinct Contextual Paths to Delinquent Behavior	p. 82
Longitudinal Studies	p. 83
Summary of the Evidence	p. 85
Praxis Implications of Research Design, Measurement, and Findings	p. 86
The Growing Impact of Environment: Community as Dependent Variable	p. 91
Economic Restructuring	p. 93
Political Restructuring	p. 96
Urban Restructuring	p. 98
Localism in the Global Context	p. 100
Within-City Polarization	p. 100
Local Conundrums: Political Autonomy and Economic Dependence	p. 103
The Communitarian Perspective	p. 105
Progressive Proposals: Defensive and Creative Strategies	p. 106
Defensive Strategies	p. 107
Creating Civil Society	p. 107
Politics of the New Localism	p. 110
An Example of Local Initiative	p. 111
Conclusion	p. 113
Knowledge from Praxis	p. 115
Public Programs Targeting Inner-City Communities	p. 116
Urban Renewal and Concern for Substandard Housing in the Inner City	p. 116
The Federal/Locality Link	p. 118
Attracting Businesses to Poor Communities	p. 121
Integrating Economic and Social Development	p. 124
Limits and Contributions of Public Programs	p. 125
From the Ground Up	p. 127
Community Development	p. 127
The Push Toward Synergy: Private, Local, and Government Partnerships	p. 131
The Expanded Community Development Model	p. 131
Reviving Coordination Among Human Service Organizations	p. 132
All Together: Government, Foundations, Private Businesses, and Local Residents	p. 132
Multicommunity Cooperation	p. 134
Contributions of the Grassroots Approach to Community Practice	p. 135
Conclusions	p. 136
Professional Models of Community Organization	p. 137
Tradition and Early Concepts of Community Organization	p. 137
The Period of Typologies and Systemic Representations of Intervention	p. 138
Organizations, Grassroots, and Linkages in Social Work Strategies	p. 144
Building an Interorganizational Field (Formal Organizations)	p. 144
Informal Grassroots Networks	p. 146
Linking Formal and Informal Organizations	p. 150
The Growing Centrality of Community Economic Development	p. 153
The Receding Role of Community Political Power	p. 156
In Search of the New Civil Society	p. 161
The Meanings of Civil Society	p. 162
The Resilience of the Rule of the Market	p. 163
Local Communities and the Prospects of Democratic Reconstruction	p. 165
The Two Dimensions of Social Capital	p. 167
Bridges of Political Power	p. 168
An Invisible, Resilient Grassroots Force: Women and Collective Activism	p. 171
The Multicultural Context of Civil Society	p. 174
References	p. 181
Index	p. 203
About the Author	p. 217
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Community Analysis and Practice: Toward a Grounded Civil Society

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