Benefits of Community involvement in Construction - Literature review Example

Findings from past studies on community participation have sometimes been applied in a wide range of service sections and types of settlement. It is, therefore, important obtain clarity in such findings. The following sections will look into an overview of community involvement and the findings from previous studies in relation to the effects of community involvement on construction projects and similar developments. Community Participation: An Overview A community’s conceptualization differs between projects, sectors, and regions (Memon, 2004).

Typically, a community can be classified in terms of their administrative, social, and resource attributes. For example, legal communities refer to those that have been recognized by the local government, distinguishing a chain of command and arranging laws and codes in terms of political structures. The community members themselves are referred to as the social communities that signify the differentiation between the population based on social, cultural, and economic norms, such as farmers, traders, or local administrators.

Finally, geographical communities can be defined by their planning terms as well as natural features and resources, recognizing communal interests (Kumar, 2005). Types of participation with which community members are actively involved in a particular activity can be classified into a number of forms. Passive participation refers to the type of involvement where in individuals who live within the project area participate by being told of future plans or current developments; other than this, they will not have any other contribution.

Participation for material incentive is a type of involvement wherein individuals participate because they are paid by food or cash in exchange for their labor in a pre-determined project (Joshi and Moore, 2004). These individuals can also participate by offering a resource, including money or labor, to the set project, thus participation by resource contribution. Next, participation with consultation involves community members being consulted with their ideas and options regarding the decisions that have to be made for the project.

Consequently, their views may either be accepted or rejected. People who are involved in interactive participation join external professionals to analyze the given situation; they also help develop action plans and decide for common projects. Finally, spontaneous mobilization enables community members to take their own initiatives that are not influenced by external professionals in order to contribute to the situation. As a result, self-help projects and requests for assistance to other relevant institutions may be carried out.

Much of the empirical evidence with regards to the outcomes of projects in which community members are involved in have been based on the research on rural water projects (Prokopy, 2005) as well as from other public service sectors with which participation has been conceptualized as a type of co-production. With this, citizens contribute their input to services which are typically and exclusively generated by public agencies. Support for community involvement has been evident in different sectors and one perceived reason for such is that social change, including the development of new habits and skills, or realizations of the service’