頁籤選單縮合
題名 | 社區一詞的用法及其演進= |
---|---|
作者 | 徐震; |
期刊 | 東吳政治社會學報 |
出版日期 | 19781200 |
卷期 | 2 1978.12[民67.12] |
頁次 | 頁78-93 |
語文 | chi |
關鍵詞 | 用法; 社區; 演進; |
英文摘要 | The term "community" is sometimes used ambiguiously by some social scientists to refer to a factory, a corporation, a prison, a trade union, a military establishment, or a professional association. These multiple usages of the term make things difficult for those who seek to study communities as a distinct form of social and territorial organization. Some sociologists, such as George A. Hillery, Jr. and Dennis E .. Poplin, have criticized the use of "community" as an omnibus word or a catch-all term and have argued that this kind of catch-all usage "stretches the concept of community to that point at which it loses all meaning and becomes useless for scientific purposes." This writer agrees fully with Poplin's critical viewpoint, and hopes that a more scientific usage of the term. might be clearly defined and developed. Accordingly this paper provides an analysis of the term that employs three concepts: 1. The Structural Concept - According to Eduard C. Lindeman the term communisty was originally used in the literature of social sciences "to designate a geographical area with legal boundaries, occupied by residents engaged in interrelated economic activities and constituting a politically self-governing unit." Thus, villages, towns and cities have been considered communities; and such communities in turn were thought of as parts of large societal units such as counties, states, and nations. The structural concept of community was derived primarily from considerations of geographical areas, systems of interrelated economic and social institutions, and govern-mental frameworks. This was the traditional geographical concept of a community. 2. The Interactional Concept - Because the modern factory has extended beyond community boundaries, commodities are no longer pro-duced for local consumption. Owners of the manufacturing establishments may live in other communities and laborers have become more and more mobile. Besides, due to the development of the means of transportation and communication, local communities have become more flexible and less autonomous. Therefore social scientists have had to revise their concepts of community by adding some observations not in physical structure but in social interaction. Thus, a group of persons who have the same religion, race, occupation or common interests, and are interdependent is considered a community. Examples would be; a Jewish community in London, a Chinese community in the United States, a military community in a nation. A group of nations closely associated for political or economic reasons is also called a community, for example NATO in Europe, and ASEAN in Southeast Asia. This concept of community has been derived primarily from ideas of psychological processes, which emphasize common interests, wishes, desires, and purposes of individuals interacting between each other in various social groupings. In this meaning considerations of spatial relationships of a group are omitted. This interactional concept of a community can also be called the psychological process concept of a community. 3. The Developmental Concept - Most sociologists seem to like to observe communities from the above mentioned two viewpoints, that is, as a configuration of families or as a system of institutions. But, mainly because of the Community Development Movement initiated and promoted by the United Nations throughout the world in recent decades, a third concept of community has been added. This concept defines communities as "units of action for combining outside assistance with organized local self-determination and effort." It is derived primarily from ideas of develop-ment, and development refers chiefly to "planned, social change" in places where indigenous initiation and local participation are essential. Thus, target communities, model cities, and regional developments are considered units of action for development. This is also called the actionist concept of a community. In delimiting, delineating, or identifying a community, one may employ these three concepts either separately or jointly, depending on ones purpose of study. However, a social worker who works with a community for its development would be well-advised to keep in mind that his purpose is to help to change a "geographical community" into a "psychological one" through "developmental projects". Conjoining these three concepts into a unison should make his operational definition of community much more clear and concrete. In conclusion, it should be noticed that whether a community is defined as a structure, a process, a development, or a unison of all the three, it must consist of a cluster of individuals, families, and other formal or informal organizations and institutions that .exist within it. These institu-tions and organizations are social units which constitute parts of the community. Therefore, the term -community should be defined as a "combination of social units and systems." It should not be used as a synonym for any kind of single unit such as a family, a factory, a corpora-tion, a prison, a trade union, a military barracks, or a professional association. This is also the reason why Community Organization is called "inter-group" work rather than "social administration". |
本系統之摘要資訊系依該期刊論文摘要之資訊為主。