Community Development: Is it in Crisis - Term Paper Example

Community Development- Is it in Crisis? “In a world where everything is so interrelated that one feels helpless to know where or how to grab hold and act, defeat sets in; for years there have been people who’ve found society too overwhelming and have withdrawn, concentrated on doing-their-own-thing. Generally we have put them into mental hospitals and diagnosed them as schizophrenics.”1 Introduction Speaking about community development and its crisis, generally it is possible to point out several crisis branches in life of every society: 1. The crisis of values in Western society. 2. The crisis of human nature (the world medicine can not overcome the problem of epidemics of modern civilization – allergy, cancer, pancreatic diabetes, and heart diseases. 3. The crisis of world economy. 4. The crisis of truth (a great amount of information is not available for the common citizen). Generally speaking crisis is a natural phase of any system, a bifurcation zone. The nature of community crisis The concept of ‘social crisis’ can be used in broad and narrow meaning. On the one hand any crisis that is connected with community activity can be called social. The concept of social crisis in narrow meaning is used for delimitation of life spheres of society. It is possible to speak about the economical, political, social and psychological crises. Economical crises can be cyclical, structural, short-term, local, and regional and others. Social crisis is the crisis of social relationship. Political crisis presupposes the inadequate administrative branch. Psychological crisis is the state of uncertainty and fear in community that causes public awareness reducing. The notion of systemic crisis can be defined as the complex of economical, political, social and psychological crises.2 Speaking about community crises it is impossible to ignore the concept of catastrophe. On the one hand catastrophe characterizes the scope of crisis, and on the other hand it contains the element of development suddenness. The concept of the systematic crisis is closely connected with the concept ‘social catastrophe’. But there is still a great difference between these two phenomena: crisis is considered to be the crucial moment in system development, but presupposes the way out from crisis situation and disorganization overcoming. Social catastrophe, on the contrary, is characterized by the irreversible destructive changes which are connected with the crash of the system and with the formation of the new social organism. It is a fact that crisis overcoming demands the mobilization of forces, public resources, administrative concentration. The very systematic character of crisis influences on the way of overcoming the crisis situation. Crisis can be considered as the means for realization of different purposes: enrichment, the way of existence, the way of realization of socially active people, the realization of the globalization program. To avoid community development crisis every country should consolidate their strategy. State must provide people with the basic principles of community functioning, and to stop the development of the entropic processes. A lot of negative processes take place every year: the degradation potential grows, the number of population reduces, nations and culture degradation develops, the potential of so-called elite crimes grows. So the task of every state is to retain the strategic potentials of the country: territory, resources, consolidated population, defensive capacity, economic independence of the country and so on. “The former focused on the community as a social unit or organism, and was concerned with so called soft issues such as social disorganisation and the need to build up networks and resources. The political action tradition identified the community as a political unit, and emphasised hard issues such as oppression and powerlessness. People associated themselves with each tradition, and each was thought to have its own particular organising styles and methods (consensual and conflict)”.3 The phenomenon of bureaucracy A problem of community degradation is of great importance nowadays. It is a fact that many people say that society development is in crisis now. ‘Community development is being reduced to a mindless bureaucratic function rather than a transformative way of working with groups to achieve social justice. Speaking about the phenomenon of bureaucracy in modern world, it is possible to state that this phenomenon crossed the frames of the administrative tool, which is characterized as a description of a range of the functional disadvantages. Bureaucracy is not just the way of working in the establishments, not just specially organized, but it is also a stratum of people who were chosen according to some definite criterion. Bureaucracy is a type of state organizing and lifestyle of society. It is a type of dynamics of development and adaptation to the processes of community modernization. In past the investigating of bureaucratization of society was limited by the critics of the dysfunctional side of its activity, resided its routine, formalism, slow interpretative function. During a long period of time even the slight hints at the bureaucracy existence as a professional group were considered to be inadmissible. In early 90-ies due to the changes of social processes the thoughts about bureaucracy greatly amplified. The works, which analysed the phenomena of bureaucratic thinking and connection between bureaucracy and organising administrative concepts and the notions of culture, appeared. These works tried to conceptualize the phenomenon of bureaucracy, to create the common view on it as on the mechanism of social activity. The representative of such a theory – the theory of bureaucracy, bureaucratic society and community crisis – was worked out by the French scholar Michael Crozier. Nowadays it is possible to speak about such concepts as ‘bureaucratic community’, ‘bureaucratic crisis’, and ‘bureaucratic rhythm of development’. Social activity in community development The main subject of research of many scholars during the last decades is ‘social activity’. It is possible to point out two trends in researching the theories of social activity in modern sociologic literature: the representatives of this trend (D. Mid, R. Mackiwer, and others) consider that activity begins within the community and goes to an individual; the representatives of this trend (M. Weber, T. Parsons and others) consider that activity is started by the individual and then is expanded on community. The concepts of social activity are closely connected with the theory and methodology of structural functionalism. According to the functionalist tradition it is possible to point out the ‘initial human behaviors’ which cause the people’s interaction in community.4 Having a kind of freedom of choosing and following some assumption in the process of social activity people interact with each other and make the social exchange. Firstly this issue was mentioned in ‘analytical realism’ of T. Parsons, who was aimed to create a new scientific theory of elementary elements and social units. The elementary elements are social actions and human doings. In total they form social system of interaction of many people.5 It is worth mentioning that community is not just interaction between people, but it is a system. Every system needs regulation, in another case it would be damaged by entropy, i.e. degradation – the common law of the non-regulated system. According to Crozier community is a form of so-called “game model”. He points out that there are some relatively stable models of relationship which are resided for some definite community and they can be called ‘games’. People interact and negotiate, and as a result of this they get ‘rules of play’. These rules are fixed in different establishments and reform to the norms and mechanisms of life. Games are the base for all types of human communications in society. They form the infrastructure for all systems. The notions ‘game’ and ‘rules of play’ have one more function – the function of connection between the two isolated subsystems of community – individual and social institutions. Here Crozier has much in common with Parsons’s theory. Clozier states that society is in crisis because of the complexity of the system and because of the process. 6 To my mind it is really so. The development of the new means of communication – television, radio and others increased the general awareness of people and reduced the possibility of their social compulsion. The natural result of the progress is that it is becoming difficult to control the behavior of every person. Inadequacy of the modern social control means is the main reason of crisis. The causes of community development crisis Growth of exchange and interactions increases the freedom of choosing of every person, this leads to the changes in relationship between people. The classical and hierarchic relationship are transforming in free and negotiating. As a result, there can be two parallel systems of administrating society: formal and non-formal, this may be another reason for community development crisis. The issue of community crisis causes the necessity to work out the new measures of overcoming the problem. This is possible only if the complexity of society systems is organized. It will be possible only if people are initiative and if they get rid of their passive resistance to bureaucratic structures. In fact, community crisis is a crash of the adopting abilities of society, its institutions, and individual (ethical crisis). That is why there is the only way out – to renew the adopting abilities of community by the reforming means of social control and by educating every person according to the norms and values of community.7 The crisis of community development is bureaucratic first of all; it is the crisis of traditional administrative models, the crisis of interaction between the state and person. It is possible to observe this situation in many Western countries, such as France, the USA, Sweden, and Japan. So we may say that the community crisis is universal. Mostly, this crisis is obvious in the disintegration of the civil order, in social discipline reluctance, in absence of real leaders, and the estrangement of people from politics.8 It is possible to speak about three major groups of factors that have a great impact on the community development crisis: contextual factors (These factors are produced by the outer environment and are results of the democratic societies); social factors (social tendencies of the development of the country, inner ethnical and regional population, stratification of society); inner factors (administrative non-adequacy). The problem of the adequate modern strategy of reforming, based on the re-building the administrative, cultural and bureaucratic infrastructure of today’s community, is the major task for the sociology scholars. One more important issue of nowadays is the crisis of culture and science. These branches have a great impact on the community development in general. It is worth noticing that man-caused attitude to nature, as to the means of satisfaction not spiritual but technical needs, is becoming one of the most important tendencies in culture development. Science is not a tool of nature understanding but the means of enrichment. The man-caused civilization is considered to be based on the interaction between human and nature where nature is an object of the human activity, the object of unlimited exploitation. The aim is to accumulate the benefits and riches and to solve the human problems (including social and cultural) with the help of them. But the ecological crisis makes a danger for community development. The relationship should be directed on the harmonization between nature and human being, which would be helpful for solving the global problems and for restoring the ethical norms towards culture and nature. To my mind, ethical and ecological imperatives are as closely connected, as the concepts of human being and individuality. People should remember that every change that they bring to nature can be reflected on them. The main point of the new culture grows from the crash of classical industrial systems of society. A new situation appears and social and economic development depends on the inner world of every person. So, in my opinion, it is possible to see the new tendency the community development. Human being is not considered to be ‘the king of the world’ any more. People are an integral part of nature and should keep the natural resources and respect the natural laws. Ecological crisis can lead to the ecological catastrophe; that is why the most important task of any community is to provide people with the information that will help to realize the serious situation and avoid catastrophe. Ethical crisis of community development is another side of the issue. It is important to note that usually ethical crisis is an indicator of political crash. Nowadays it is possible to observe the social tensions in every community and there are tree factors that determine this process: 1. People considered that the achievements of the scientific and technical progress would be available for everybody. 2. Another factor is connected with the process of development of the traditional work movement in new conditions. Here there is no condition for the negotiation process between the sides of social conflict, which looks like non-effective bureaucratic procedure in every country and which does not allow the members of community to participate in the process. 3. The third, the most fundamental reason of social tension growth, is the result of the economical growth, which crashes the old branches of production and creates the new ones. The new branches have high demands of geographical and professional mobilization that causes strong psychological tensions. All these factors have a negative impact on the traditional forms of social control based on the principles of fragmentation, stratification and retaining the communicative barriers. The objective reality increases the number of connections between people, and leads to the growth of communication systems. This is the violation of the main principle of bureaucratic structures. This problem is not so sharp in the USA where the community is open and in Japan where it is possible to keep the social control of stable type. The crash of traditional institutions of the bureaucratic social control is obvious in Western Europe where the freedom of choosing grows. People can freely choose their friends, place of work and living, ways of entertaining. The traditional administrative institutions (churches, schools and cultural establishments) have experienced the great changes. The most obvious was the revolution of religious outlook. In many European countries the institution of church lost its political and ethical impact on community. This is especially noticeable in Catholic Church, which was always characterized as authoritarian. This means that one of the ideological models of European society was crashed, and consequently the religious element of social structure crashed. The sphere of education is another example of the traditional relationship between administration and social control. The crisis in this sphere is characterized by the absence of belief in sanctity of teachers’ mission. The educational system works by inertia and tradition. The ethical community crisis touched other social institutions, such as army, which is not a symbol of patriotic ideas any more. The function of defense is the duty of professional army nowadays. The conception of army, based on the universal military service, educating the citizens and having the bureaucratic character, is disappearing now. Nowadays army is isolated from the common stream of social history. The crisis of community development is also obvious in the professional spheres. Many new professions appear and demand really skilled workers, and that is again, as it was mentioned above, is the crisis of educational sphere. The modern professions increase the importance of practical use and pragmatic orientation of knowledge. So, crisis of traditional bureaucratic systems is obvious in intellectual sphere: “This community work function should be a recognised part of the professional practice of teachers, social workers, the clergy, health workers, architects, planners, administrators and others. In the modern conditions of social change it is also a necessary full time professional task.”9 The Mass Media crisis is less obvious in the branch of modern culture. This is caused by the close connection of values and practical function in this sphere. It is a fact that Mass Media has a great impact on the politics and governing. The modern technology of the connection means is aimed to destroy the barriers of communication and that is why Mass Media is now so deeply infected with the community crisis. Mass Media is becoming the independent form of administration. But there are the problems of manipulation with people’s opinion and ideological dependence. For better ‘healing’ the community development crisis Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation proposes the following steps: “helping local people to decide, plan and take action to meet their own needs with the help of available outside resources; helping local services to become more effective, usable and accessible to those whose needs they are trying to meet; taking account of the interrelation between different services in planning for people; forecasting necessary adoptions to meet new social needs in constantly changing circumstances”10 The strands of Community Development Methods There are different methods and approaches to the Community Development: pluralist; feminist; radical; progressive. The Pluralist approach can be used in different spheres of life of society – politics, science, religion. Pluralism means the acceptance of the various interests and approaches. Pluralism is one of the peculiarities of the modern democratic communities. So it is possible to say that pluralist approach is a good atmosphere for developing the individual freedom of every person. Pluralism is opposed to totalitarianism. One of the first representatives of this approach was James Madison. Later the theory of pluralism was criticized and reformed to neo-pluralism. Pluralist approach is the most humanistic strand. “Society in all developed countries has become pluralist and is becoming more pluralist day by day. It is splintering into a myriad of institutions each more or less autonomous, each requiring its own leadership and management, each having its own specific task.” 11 The progressive approach is characterized by the progressive thinking about the equality of people. Firstly, this approach was invented in the last years of the XIX century and in the first decades of the XX century. It was frequently used in the United States of America at that time. The progressive approach proclaimed that all people were equal in their rights and duties. But there was a great beginning of the modern race problem. The feminist approach and the progressive one are closely connected. Because though the progressivisms said that men and women were equal there was a great difference between them in practice. The Feministic approach is closely connected with the huge feminism movements which includes a great number of social and political theories. Feminism is one of the most important issues nowadays. Feministic approach is focused on the women’s activity in the world, sex difference and sex discrimination. Feminism proclaims the sex equality in every sphere of life of society: economics, politics, culture and others. The problem of violence is a current issue today. “Its important to remember that feminism is no longer a group of organizations or leaders. Its the expectations that parents have for their daughters, and their sons, too. Its the way we talk about and treat one another. Its who makes the money and who makes the compromises and who makes the dinner. Its a state of mind. Its the way we live now.” 12 The radical approach is associated with the great changes in society. Usually these changes have a revolutionary character. There is a contradiction if this strand can positively affect on the community development. On the one hand it can bring positive results when the political system should be changed into a progressive form of power. On the other hand usually radicalism is not appreciated by any administration and can be easily crashed. Besides here it is possible to speak about the victims as an integral part of radical movements. All these strands have a great impact on community development. Their functioning in society makes a complicated complex of social development in political, economic and cultural spheres. Conclusion In conclusion it is worth saying that community development crisis is more obvious day by day. And there is a real danger to reach a social catastrophe and then it would not be really impossible to correct anything. Our community is like a mechanism which is governed by the mindless bureaucratic structure instead of being an organism which is independent and alive. The bureaucratic procedures are everywhere and it is really impossible to get rid of them. It is the structure which was being built for years and can not be removed in one day. References Alinsky, S.D.(1971) Rules for Radical: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals. New York:Vintage Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (1973) Current Issues in Community Work. A Study by the Community Work Group, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Crozier M., Huntington S., Watanuki J. The Crisis of Democracy. N. 1. 1975. Ledwith, M. (2005) Community Development: A critical Approach. Bristol:Policy Press Popple, K. (1995) Analysing Community Work: Its Theory and Practice, OUP: Buckingham Thomas, D. N. (1976) Organizing for Social Change. A study in the theory and practice of community work, London: George Allen and Unwin. Read More