Globalization and Public Policy - Essay Example

Community Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Community Over the years, scholars have tried in vain to come up with a generally acceptable definition of a community. However, there has been some agreement of what constitutes a community. A community has been defined from two different perspectives including the social and biological perspectives. Socially, it has been defined as a group of people living together or interacting in a given space for a given time. Thus, it is referred as a bigger unit than a family or a householder. Cohesiveness among members of the community is one of the key factors making up a community. Proximity among these members irrespective of their background enhances the spirit of the concept of a community. In addition, a community can be defined on the bases of nationality and international integration. Scientifically, a community has been associated with a group of living organisms, living together in a given environment. These organisms live together to sustain each other, as they do share physical components of their living environment. This paper provides an overview of what comprises of a community, social issues and how various community groups address these issues. Establishing whether a group of people living or interacting forms a community is a complex process. However, there are three ways through which a community can be established. These different ways include the place, interest, and communion. Place can also be defined as a geographical perspective to a community. It is the largest and commonly used way of establishing a community. It defines a place or a territory, where people live together, share common interests, and there is unity among them. For example, people living in a given village, rage, shopping center and any other definite geographical settings, may be referred to as a community. However, with the increased international integration, immigration, and the use of internet, place as a key means of establishing a community has been diluted (Canuto & Jason, 2000). Through the internet, people from all corners of the world have been in a position to relate with each other despite the fact that they are at a distance from each other. For instance, through the application of social network sites such as Face book, Twitter, and MySpace among others have been increased number of online communities. Face book, which is one of the leading social network sites in terms of members, has connected millions of people from all over the world, to form what we can call face book community. The other perspective of establishing a community is through the interests of people. These people have something in common, which join them rather than where they come from or the place. Factors such as sexuality, religion, profession, and politics among others are crucial sources of interests through which people forms a community. On sexuality, we have communities such as men, women, gay, and lesbian among others. Religion is one of the broad way of establishing community based on interests. For example, we have Muslim community, Buddhists community, catholic community, and protestant communities among others. People in the same profession have some common interests such as regulation, training, terms and ambitions. Such people are likely to form a community to address their interests. Politically, people from different places may come together to support a given political ideology. For example, across the world we have two political ideologies supported by different people, that is, capitalism and socialism. Communism is the other form of community which can is based of what and who people are associated with. It the weakest form of community formation as there may lack integration between the members. For example, supporter of a given football club feels entertained when their team wins and hence they have something in common. However, there is no common ground or a common course of action. All of them may just be watching but, nothing in common above it. The other example, of a communion community is the spiritual communism among Christians and Christ. In other words, a community can be divided into three categories, including geographically, culturally, and organizational. Geographically, we have communities such as village, neighborhood, towns, regions, nations, and international integration groups, such common wealth community, European Union community, and NAFTA among others. Cultural communities include a clan, subculture, religion, and pluralistic among other communities. Community organization can be established on bases of family linage, age group, formal association, political orientation, economic association, and professional association. In establishing a stable and cohesive community, three values must exist between the members. There values include tolerance, reciprocity and trust. Tolerance is the sense of been open to each other with respect and readiness to listen and learn from others. Secondly, members should be ready to reciprocate. In this case, each member should contribute towards the affairs of other members as they benefit from the presence of others. Lastly, there must be trust between members of the community. This enhances consistency, honesty, and reliability among members of a community. This enhances cohesiveness and a sense of unity. Globalization is the process through which people and resources from all over the world integrate through increased mobility in the global context. Through globalization, the world has become into what was used to a village. People can move from one state to the other carry out transactions, interact with people share ideologies and learn from others. In addition, through the application of technology, people can communicate and interact within seconds fro different points in the world. The concept of globalization has several impacts on communities which has the result into concerns of community and social groups. Contracting the world into a global village brings together people with different values and social background. These individuals are sometimes associated with bring civilization; to some communities they create tension among communities. It is, therefore, distorts the community values and set up in such communities. For example, with the increased use of the internet and development of the internet community, regardless of the nationality, region and, or religious group dilutes the traditional established communities. In this case, tribal, ethical, religious and national communalities are diluted, as this individual get involved into newly established communities. The other impact of globalization to a community is that it leads to immigration. In this case, people move to different geographical areas to work and settle. They part from their original communities and interact with the community, where they work or settle. With these mixed cultural communities people lose their identity, as they try to accommodate each other to form a community. In addition, families, which form the basic unit of a community, are dispersed as members move to different continents and countries to look for opportunities and develop their career. Some of these members take or may live lest of their lives without meeting each other, such families’ values are not totally lost with the concept of globalization. The other impact of globalization to communities is that it threatens peace and security, terrorist and criminals have taken advantage of the concept of globalization to facilitate their plans. They use modern technology and integration in the world to plan and execute their destructive undertaking. Terrorists have been able to move from one nation to the other, to survey, investigate and locate loopholes in security systems of a country to easily carry out their plans. On the other hand, criminals such as drug traffickers have taken advantage on international relations, where people and materials can move freely from one nation to the other. This leads to destruction of communities and their foundations. Community groups have strived to mitigate the impact of globalization to communities through various means. First, communities are encouraged to conserve their cultural values, through writing and storage of physical cultural equipments. In several cases, these community groups have funded for construction of museums and community structure to ensure that the future generation have some things to learn about their linage and traditions. Secondly, these community groups have been facilitated through private bills in many countries to set out laws, which enhance conservation of cultural integrity for all communities in such states. Thirdly, these groups have been at the forefront in enhancing regulations on information exchanged through internet interaction among people from different communities. This is aimed at ensuring that there are no elements of disrespect of some community values. Environmental issues and problems have been part of the key concerns to many communities across the world. Human beings have over the years destroyed his living environment through social- economic activities. With the increased population, demand for land for settlement, and agricultural activities have increased; virgin land will continue to be exploited to meet the demand. In addition, with increased industrialization, waste products drained into natural resources have increased in the recent past from all over the world. For example, transportation and production process make use of combustible fuel, which leads results into emission of hazardous gases into the atmosphere. Continuous accumulation of these gases has led to the problem of global warming and green house effect. There are various effects of environmental issues, as a result of human destruction and pollution. These effects have been of immense concerns to community groups from all over the world. The first impact of environmental destruction and pollution is that it leads to health hazards for human, animals and plants. For example, emission of poisonous gases leads to respiratory problems to human and animals. Diseases such as asthma, skin and lung cancers have been associated with the presence of poisonous gases into the atmosphere. The second effect of environmental destruction and pollution is the reduced amount of fresh drinking water. Many communities are living today without adequate water for their own consumption and their animals. The route cause of this problem is that water bodies such as rivers, seas, and lakes have been terminated over the years, where supply of clean water has been contaminated by solid waste products, as well as, liquid wastes flown into water bodies from both domestic and industrial set ups. Lastly, land pollution is another environmental issue affecting many communities across the world. Disposal of non biodegradable components into productive land reduces its fertility over the years. This particularly reduces the output levels per hectare. Eventually, food produced for human and animal consumption has been reduced. Many people are suffering due to lack of food, particularly in developing countries, where there are poor methods of disposing waste products. These community groups have tried to react to these community concerns with the aim of reducing their effects on human life today, and in the future generation. Through their power to negotiate and influence decision making, some groups such Green Belt and World Environmental organization among others, have made tremendous strides in influencing environmental conservation programs. In addition, they have influenced many governments to come up with policies to control the amount of waste products from industries and commercial organizations disposed into land and water bodies. Through financial support to environmental scholars, these groups have been able to assist in coming up with innovative ways of conserving the environment. Through public enlightenment, communities have come to understand environmental issues, and the effect on their lives and for the coming generation. Many communities have suffered tremendously, as a result, of crime cases. A crime is unacceptable act where individuals or groups are involved in an illegal act at the expense of other members of a community. In this case, the victims suffer in various ways including injuries, death, and destruction of properties and loss of property. Crime levels have increased everywhere as result of various reasons. Increased rate of moral decay, where the number of people who do not respect and attach value on other people’s life and property, have increased over the years. The rate of unemployment and the rising cost of living has a result into an increased number of young, educated jobless people. This people are usually frustrated and hence, they end up into criminal activities to earn a living. This takes place particularly in urban centers, where a pool of educated people who moves in search for employment opportunities. Crime has had an adverse effect to many communities. First, it has led to loss of live and increased the number of disabled people in the community. Some criminal activities have led to death of members in the communities, some families have lost bread winners and hence, they are left suffering while some children have terminated their education (Thorvaldur & Gylfi, 2003). In additional, some victims have been left with permanent injuries and therefore, they become dependant’s member in a community. Secondly, crime has led into low investment and production level in many communities. In most cases, investors and businessmen are targeted by criminals and hence, in communities with a high rate of crime are not attractive to many investors. These areas remain undeveloped as investment and production levels remains far much Community groups have come up with various strategies to reduce the rate and intensity of crime. First, through youth empowerment programs, the number of young and unemployed people in a community has reduced drastically. These programs assist young people to set up self employment engagement such as, small business operations to earn a living, instead of involving themselves into criminal activities. Some of them end up expanding their operations to large scale business units with millions of capital and asset base. Secondly, community groups working hand in hand with the government have assisted in identifying criminals in a community, which is essential in reduction of rate of criminal cases in a community. Social equity is a concept developed some decades ago. It is a community concern which advocates for equity among members of the community. In this case, individuals and groups in a community are treated with respect irrespective of their status, gender, education and age. Equality under law allows people to equal right to exercise their voting right, freedom to speech and association. In addition, they every member of a community is entitled to self security, as well as, protection against theft or destruction of property. Economically, members of a society should access health services and education easily. Discrimination based on gender, age, status, education and sexual orientation are some of key community group concerns. Those discriminated against are usually the members of the society in one way or the other. These people are not given equal opportunity, which implies that there is social injustice in such a community. Community groups advocates for social equality legal and humanitarian means. For example, in various countries, these groups have assisted in coming up with policies and laws, which enhance social equity. In some countries, these groups have pushed the government to offer free and compulsory education and medical services to all citizens. In addition, these groups have educated people on their rights and obligations. This implies that these people have the knowledge to know when, they are denied their rights, and need to demand for them. In various instances, these groups have assisted victims of discrimination to undertake legal action against perpetrators. In conclusion, the concept of community is complex, but essential in understanding human behavior and the way of life. This concept assists in understanding various social issues and means used by stakeholders to address them. These issues including globalization, environmental issues, social equity, and crime, have devastating effects to many communities. Globalization involves the concept of integration among people from different nations for commercial, religious and social interaction purpose. These concepts affect many communities as people from all over the world exchange cultural behavior and beliefs. Environmental issues comprises of water, air and land pollution, which leads to degradation of nature. It leads to destruction of nature, which may reduce people’s way of life now and in the future. Social equality enhances economic and political justice among members in a community. Community groups play a vital responsibility in resolving social issues through the application of legal and humanitarian means. It is highly recommended that these groups should be supported to enhance achievement of their objective for sustainable communities across the world. References Canuto, M. A., & Jason, Y. (2000). The Archaeology of Communities. New York: Routledge. Chavis, D. M., Hogge, J. H., McMillan, D. W., & Wandersman, A. (1986). 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