Community Development Theory
Salman Wahid
SWK301Seminar32019.pptxSWK301
Seminar 3 Models of Community Work
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Revisiting
Week 1 – Looked at “What is community?” and “What is community work?”.
Week 2 – Looked at theories, levels of practice and asking questions of the broader context.
Today we will look at:
3 Models of Community Work
Rothman’s – 3 Models of Community Work.
Stepney and Popple’s – 8 Models of Community Work.
Twelvetrees - ‘Continuum’ Typology.
A guideline or process for practice
Model
“ ………a coherent set of directives which state how a given kind of treatment/approach is to be carried out. A model is basically definitional and descriptive. It usually states what the practitioner is expected to do or what the practitioners customarily do under given conditions.”
(Reid & Epstein in Kettner, 1975, p. 631)
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or ‘types’ of community work
Lets examine different ways of thinking about types of community work
MODELS
Rothman & Tropman, 1987; Taylor & Roberts, 1985; Twelvetrees, 2002). Many authors have also recognised that there is some overlap, a continuum, or phasing between the models they identify. Indeed, in the most recent edition of Strategies of Community Intervention Jack Rothman (1995, p. 27) informs the reader that:
“Over time I have come to de-emphasize or soften the notion of ‘models’, which gives greater importance and internal validity to the approaches than seems warranted, and to accent the overlap and intermixture among approaches.”
Ife (2002, p. 1. Italics in original) appears to agree with Rothman’s sentiment, and adds that there is confusion in both understandings and terminology in community work.
The terms community work, community development, community organisation, community action, community practice and community change are all commonly used, often interchangeably, and although there are some important differences between some or all of these terms, there is no agreement as to what these differences are, and no clear consensus as to the different shades of meaning that each implies
Today we will look at a couple of different ways (or typologies) people have developed for thinking about the different ways we work with communities.
For this unit we will use ‘community work’ to describe all the ways one can work with communities, and mainly use Rothman’s typology as ‘signposts’ for thinking about some of the key differences in ways we might work.
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Rothman 3 Models of community work
community development community planning social action
See; Rothman J. Approaches to Community Intervention (on e-reserve)
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Community (or locality) development
‘grass roots’ and ‘bottom up’
a wide variety of community people should be involved in planning, implementation, and evaluation.
use of democratic procedures, voluntary cooperation, network building, self-help, the development of local leadership, capacity, and educational objectives.
Community capacity building
Asset-based community development
Neighbourhood development
Strengths based community work
International work (longer term non-emergency programs)
The emphasis on community development is that the idea of local or ‘locality’ allows a focus that is specific to an area or a group of people with common interests. It has assumptions that the work of community development be shared by those in that community-participation at every level of this work is important.
Eg; Neighbourhood development- community houses or community centres, look up Neighbourhood houses Victoria: www.nhvic.org.au
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Social (or community) planning
A rational, deliberately planned, technical process of problem-solving with regard to substantive social problems.
The degree of community participation may vary. Often community is ‘consulted’ or a ‘needs assessment’ is undertaken by external experts and professionals.
Building community capacity or fostering radical or fundamental social change is not a major goal of this model of community practice.
Government interventions
Emergency and disaster relief
Community Consultations
Often social planning is carried out by “experts” or outsiders contracted to gather information about an issue.
Eg; in response to concerns about violence in a small town, the government recruits a company to carry out a needs analysis about local services. The company is based in a capital city in another state.
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Social action
An (often disadvantaged) segment of the population is organized in order to make demands on the larger community for increased resources or improved treatment.
There is a focus on social justice, democracy, and the redistribution of power, resources, and decision making.
Often linked to broader social movements
Rally's, marches, boycotts,
High level of internet organising
Professional fields are typically conservative- social action is usually arises from direct experiences of people wanting challenge a situation and raise awareness of the broader community.
eg; Timor Gap
Eg; refugee advocacy groups
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Social action
Think about what constitutes social action.
These people are attending a rally to highlight the plight of asylum seekers and their treatment when they come to Australia for protection. By using a number of actions; rallies, petitions, art, music, petitions, letter writing, phone calls to politicians etc they seek to influence government policy.
Look up; Rural Australians for refugees. Teachers for refugees, Grandmothers for Refugees
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| Summary from Rothman | Community Development | Social Planning | Social Action |
| Goals | Capacity building, network building, self help, process orientated. | To solve a particular problem. Task orientated | Social change Institutional change Power shifts |
| Assumptions | People need community. The community holds the answers to it’s issues. | There are substantive problems that experts can fix | Society is unjust and unequal. Power must be challenged |
| Strategies for change | Involvement of broad range of people to determine and address their own issues | Gather data about issue and make decisions about most logical course of action | Consciousness raising and mobilizing of people to take action against the causes of oppression |
| Characteristics, tactics | Consensus, communication, discussion among diverse groups | Consensus or conflict | Conflict, direct action, confrontation, negotiation. |
| Practitioner roles | Facilitator, networker, event management, group worker, | Expert, researcher, analyst, social policy worker, project manager | Advocate, organiser, media liaison, event management |
Table 1.1 (summary from Rothman)
Most paid work in communities in Australia falls into the ‘community’ or ‘locality’ development category.
A lot of volunteer work in Australia is in the ‘social action’ category
Much internal community work fits in the ‘social planning’ category (some work in remote Aboriginal communities in Australia is often of this kind).
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Stepney and Popple 8 Models of community work
Stepney & Popple (2008) Social work and the community: a critical context for practice.
Popple, K (1995) Analysing community work, it’s theory and it’s practice.
Another way of looking at how community work is organised.
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Stepney & Popples' models
Community care
Community organisation
Community development
Community education
Community planning
Community action
Feminist community work
Black and anti-racist community work
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Community Care
concentrates on developing self-help concepts to address social and welfare needs;
family is seen as locus of care;
efforts to help ensure that people who are in need of care remain in the community;
controversy around this model as community care is ambiguous and often seen as a way of cost shifting from the state to the community;
‘Attempts to cultivate social networks and voluntary services ……for the welfare of residents.’ (Popple, 1995)
Community Organisation
Used widely in Britain as a way of improving coordination between different welfare agencies
Attempts to avoid duplication of services
Be aware of scepticism as to whether the community as a social construction exists
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Community Development
The term ‘community development’ is used in place of community work in order to emphasise the developmental aspects of the work;
workers orient themselves in the direction of community initiatives;
characterised by work at neighbourhood level.
‘Concerned with assisting groups to acquire the skills and confidence to improve the quality of the lives of its members’(Popple, 1995)
Community Planning
Driven by governance to stop the poor “slipping through the net” and based on evidence based research & practice;
A gearing toward inclusion through labour market activation – participation and partnership with government
‘an analysis of social conditions, social policies and agency services; the setting of goals and priorities..’ (Popple, 1995)
Community Education
school-based learning, compensatory education, adult education at village & industry
major influence has been the work of Paulo Friere
education for liberation
praxis, conscientisation (politicization & political action)
“…as a significant attempt to redirect educational policy and practice in ways which bring education and community into a closer and more equal relationship.”
(Allen et al., 1987, p. 2 in Popple, 1995, p. 63)
By increasing access to education, peoples’ options to a future employment, can expand.
Education as a means to liberation
Neighborhood houses offer education for adults, re assertiveness training, literacy classes, tenant rights
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Community Action
Reaction to the paternalism of some community work models and a response by powerless groups to increase their effectiveness;
has evolved from communities themselves often taking an oppositional position to wider developments which affect them but which are outside of their immediate control (Popple 08,p.133);
Traditionally been class-based and uses conflict and direct action;
See Morwell, closing of Hazelwood coal plant
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Feminist Community Work
focuses on the improvement of women’s welfare
looks at how institutionalised gender disadvantage operates to restrict the life opportunities for women;
offers a critique of patriarchy, provides tactical support to the women’s movement and emancipation in all its forms while working to alert to any oppressive gender identity
“The influence of women is an essential factor in the welfare of humanity, and it will become more valuable as time proceeds”
(Henri Dunant, of the Red Cross & 1st Nobel Peace prize winner);
Feminist community work challenges gendered assumptions and seeks to give voice to womens’ experience. Post modernist feminism includes minorities, those with disabilities, LGBTIQ (lesbian, Gay, bi-sexual, trangender, intersex and queer) and further challenges the harm done by stereotyping.
Consider how institutionalised gender disadvantage is perpetuated-
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Black and anti-racist community work
traditional forms of community work have often failed to meet the particular needs of the black community; ‘institutional racism’ ( the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin) p.44;
Community projects by black population are often a response to their exclusion in white dominated service provision;
Racism operates informally in neighbourhoods with people from minority ethnic groups feeling their different expressions of cultural, religious and language under threat;
‘race’ is a cultural, political and economic concept, not a biologically derived one
Awareness that western approaches are often individualist and often not suited to the collective paradigms of indigenous peoples.
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| Model | Strategy | Main role/title of worker | Examples of work/agencies | Key texts |
| Community Care | Cultivating social networks and voluntary services. Developing self-help concepts. | Organizer / Volunteer | Work with older people, persons with disabilities, children under 5 years old | Beresford & Croft (1986); Heginbotham (1990); Mayo (1994) |
| Community organisation | Improving co-ordination between different welfare agencies | Organizer / Catalyst / Manager | Councils for Voluntary Service, Racial Equality Councils, Settlements | Adamson et al. (1988); Dearlove (1974); Dominelli (1990) |
| Community development | Assisting groups to acquire the skills and confidence to improve quality of life. Active participation. | Enabler / Neighbourhood Worker / Facilitator | Community groups, Tenants groups, Settlements, neighbourhood groups, action groups | Association of Metropolitan Authorities (1993); Barr (1991) |
| Social/community planning | Analysis of social conditions, setting of goals and priorities, implementing and evaluating services and programmes | Enabler / Facilitator | Localities undergoing redevelopment | Marris (1987); Twelvetrees (1991) |
| Community education | Attempts to bring education and community into a closer and more equal relationship | Educator / Facilitator | Community schools/colleges, 'compensatory education', Working class/feminist adult education | Allen et al. (1987); Allen & Martin (1992); Freire (1970, 1972, 1976, 1985); Lovett (1975); Lovett et al. (1983); Rogers (1994) |
| Community action | Can be class-based, conflict-focused direct action at local level | Activist | Squatting movement, welfare rights movement, resistance against planning and redevelopment, tenant's action | Craig et al. (1982); Jacobs & Popple (1994); Lees & Mayo (1984) |
| Feminist community work | Improvement of women's welfare, working collectively to challenge and eradicate inequalities suffered by women, challenges power imbalances | Activist / Enabler / Facilitator | Women's refuges, Women's health groups, Women's therapy centres | Barker (1986); Dixon et al. (1982); Dominelli (1990, 1994); Flynn et al. (1986) |
| Black and anti-racist community work | Setting up and running groups that support the needs of Black people. Challenging racism. | Activist / Volunteer | Racial Equality Councils and Commission for Racial Equality funded projects | Ohri et al. (1982); Sivanandan (1976,1990); Sondhi (1982,1994) |
Popple’s Models of Community Work Practice
From: Popple (1995) Analysing Community Work - Its theory and practice, Buckingham: Open University Press
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Twelvetrees ‘continuum’ typology
Twelvetrees, A. (2008). Introduction: What is Community Work?
(Chapter 1) Community Work, 4th Ed. Palgrave, Baskingstoke. Pages 1-18.
Community development -----------
Self-help ------------
Generic community work -----------
Process focused -------------------
Enabling role of worker ---------------
Community work in its own right -----
Social Planning
Service and influence
Specialist community work
Product focused
Organising role of worker
Community work as an ‘attitude’
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| Community Development Work – The community worker works with people in relation to what those people decide to become involved with, helping them realise their collective goals. Social Planning – The community worker works to initiate projects, liaising and working directly with service providers to sensitise them to the needs of specific communities, assisting them to improve services or alter policies – they bypass the community group to bring about change. |
| Self-Help/Services Approach – needs are met from resources existing within the community. Influence Approaches – Influences/changes policies of organisations outside the community. |
| Generic Community Workers – Work in relation to any issue or sector. Specialist Community Workers – Work to improve services and to involve consumers or client groups in some way in this process. |
| Process/ Expressive Goals and Groups – Process goals focus on changes in people’s confidence, knowledge, technical skills or attitudes. The community worker will use a facilitating/enabling approach with communities. Community groups that focus on process goals are called expressive groups. Product/Instrumental Goals and Groups – goals focus on changes to material situations. The community workers use an organising approach with communities. Community groups that focus on process goals are called instrumental groups. |
| Facilitating/Enabling Role - The community development worker goes at the pace of the group and assists members to work out what they want to do and how to do it. Organising Role – The community development work is directive as the “product” needs to predominate and because the group members may lack the motivation or skills. |
| Community Work in its own right – The community worker facilitates collective action in the community as his or her main job. Community Work as an attitude and approach – Other profession (e.g teacher, doctor, lawyer etc) carry out their work using principles of community work |
| Unpaid Community Work Paid Community Work |
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And finally..
What matters is finding a way of engaging with people in a way that promotes changes in a way that empowers and transforms lives
It’s a lot to take in!
the ‘models’ and ‘theories provide a way of understanding and organising different types of community work
know the different types of community work
look more deeply into types or kinds that appeal to you
no ‘typology’ is right or wrong – they offer ways to understand what we aim to do in community work and how to do it.
These typologies simply ‘organise’ different types of community work. They are not exhaustive.
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