Network And Relational Perspectives For Community Psychology

Every person deserves the right to experience a sense of community amongst people who share a common characteristic. A sense of fellowship amongst similar people allows a person to become more comfortable with who they are through interactions with others who are going through—or have gone through—the same triumphs or hardships. Without this feeling of belonging, one could be driven into insanity. Anxiety due to isolation and desolation could run rampant through a person’s mind because of the loneliness that comes with a lack of community—making it an essential part of a humanhood. By definition however, community invites inimitability. Community can be defined as a group of unique individuals with shared characteristics. From that a

Communities play an essential role in the development of the self and learning about the stranger. Through communities, individuals are able to socialize and gain a greater understanding of each other. A community can be defined in many different ways based on every individual’s experience with it. Developing a strong community takes time. Some people, like Jeannette Walls, do not have the opportunity to develop strong communities throughout their childhood.

A community is a place where people around supposed to be able to live and thrive together. When one thinks of a community, the image that most likely is visualized is one of a place where each person lives harmoniously with all the other members of that community. While this may be the typical image of a community, it is not the realistic view. In reality communities can share both good and bad aspects. In Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-First Century Peter Dreier, John Mollenkopf, and Todd Swanstrom make the argument that the place a person lives ultimately matters over all else; the place which a person lives effects the choices that that he/she makes and determines his/her ability to obtain a

In chapter 4 of The Sociologically Examined Life, Michael Schwalbe discusses “Relationships, Groups, and Interdependence.” This chapter covers several topics in-depth of relationships and why we categorize things the way we do.

Imagine a double headed arrow. The arrow at the bottom, pointed down, is the individual. This individual is connected to something bigger, the upward arrow. This upward arrow explains the social system or “larger than us”. Johnson (1999) explains “We are always participating in something larger than ourselves…to understand social life and what happens to people in it, we have to understand what it is that we’re participating in and how we participate in it.” (39). To picture this, Johnson (1999) uses the analogy of a forest stating, “…a forest is simply a collection of individual trees… a collection of trees that exist in a particular relation to one another,” (39). He goes on to say that “…the key to understanding social life isn’t just the forest and it isn't just the trees. It’s the forest and the trees and how they're related to one another.” (Johnson 1999: 39). This is sociology and the rule that people are not systems and systems are not people (Johnson 1999).

Personal behaviors are largely shaped by social pressures—this statement holds more as fact than as theory. Evidently, communities pose as a positive. Why else would they exist if they were not believed to be advantageous? Communities stand as collective forces much stronger than individual forces and additionally, communities exist as oases of social comfort helping one another express emotions and gain acceptance. These positive aspects are blatantly obvious, and there really is no need to further investigate these pros within communities. Instead, there should lie more concern around the proponents of communities that are not obvious: their deleterious effects on the individual. As great as they are, communities also strip away individuality

First, community is our “home.” We have been living in a community ever since we were just little babies and it has always influenced us. Communities have played a big part in who we are today. We start off in school not knowing anyone or anything and as you get older you begin to think about the

It is argued that the more the institutions that work on bringing parents together are the ones who have the biggest payoff or reward to the individual because with more interaction the closer they will become and form meaningful beneficial relationships with one another (Small 2009). These organizations are viewed as a means of expression for individuals or a conduit allowing them to touch and connect with those who share similar views no matter what the organization is. The main point of the book that individuals are shaped by their social interactions and organizations that they participate in is backed up by statistics throughout the book. The appendix provides many of the sources of data and statistics he used throughout the book. The author states that while most scholars understand the importance and major role these social networks play however-- when it comes to developing people very few of them understand how these networks exactly form or what sort of role these institutions play in helping make these connections happen and how they provide an environment that cultivates these beneficial relationships. The author even argues that participation and engagement in the childcare centers creates what he calls “compartmentalized intimates” which is where mothers or fathers form close trusting relationships with other parents who are also in similar situations (Small

Shaw and McKay noticed four factors that hindered the proper organization of community: residential mobility, family disruption economic status and ethnic heterogeneity. However, Sampson and Groves developed their three ways to measure the level of social organization: the ability for the community to control teenage peer groups, the presence of local friendship networks, and the amount of participation in formal or salutary organizations (Sampson and Groves, 1989). These characteristics are apparent in Boyz n the Hood, for the community was ineffective in controlling teenage peer groups. Although there was a strong local bond in friendship, there was no authority managing juvenile delinquency; which supports Shaw and

For the purpose of this paper, the community being analyzed will involve the population that lives within the boundaries of the Nutley, New Jersey. Nutley, a township within Essex County, New Jersey, is home to a dense population of individuals within its small borders. It meets the criteria of a community due to the fact that the individuals share some mutual characteristics (Kirst-Ashman, 2011). Nutley is a residential neighborhood that consists of 11,301 households. Nutley, New Jersey is also a geographical community, where individuals share the common variable of location (Kirst-Ashman, 2011). Subsequently, Nutley contains one high school, one middle school, and five elementary schools (Nutley, New Jersey, 2016). Within the 3.428 square miles that Nutley is comprised of, there are 10 public parks where residents are welcomed to play soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and baseball among other sports.

Although my personal experiences are not involved in gang like activity, or serious deviant behavior, it still resembles the actions children make when they are left unsupervised. These behaviors become so normalized in these inner cities, which people just become accustom to delinquent behavior because it is so embedded within communities. This theories concern is only with how the “characteristics of geographical areas, such as whether they are disorganized, influence crime rates” (Cullen). Although I think that this is an interesting aspect to consider upon looking at crime rates, I do not think it is accurate to study a community without studying the characteristics of those who make up the community as well. Sampson and Wilson argue that social disorganization is linked to racial inequalities rather then it being a natural part of city growth. I think that this is an accurate statement, because racial inequality is what creates such a tremendous divide among communities, and I believe that if racial inequality did not exist, we would not have as much disorganization within communities. It has also been argued that “cultural values emerge that do not

Our community was like the one Timothy Egan described by saying, “Americans long have had gated communities,” because it was as if we were cutting of the black community from entering in with us. I feel that hindered my development as a child. I got no real experience of the outside world. There was no diversity in my life; it was like I was blind to all other things outside of the white middle class community. With that being said I still think my neighborhood helped me grow into a better man be engraving in my head good morals. Ever since I was a little kid the catholic laws or morals have been put into my head and have helped me become a better person. The people that drove these morals into my head were my friends and family. So that brings me to my second social force.

In previous community development research, Bhattacharyya (2004) finds that locality has been used as a proxy for community development. He argues that it is becoming analytically irrelevant

Community development (CD) has been playing an important role within the society as it is a critical practice that identifies and attempts to address unequal relations of power (Forde & Lynch, 2015). In CD, social capital is an important term as it refers to the networks and norms that enable collective action. In general, social capital is the level of trust between members within the community. Social workers need to understand and empower the social capital to strengthen the community through collective action based on the existing resources.

I wouldn’t really say my community as a whole has an impact on me as a person but people in around me have had a huge impact on me for who I am today. The people who have the biggest impact on me is defiantly my family and friends, I have done so many things with them that made me the person who I am today.