Local community

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A local community has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location. The word is often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household. The word can also refer to the national community or global community.

Contents

The word "community" is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, "with/together" and munus, "gift"), a broad term for fellowship or organized society. [1]

A sense of community refers to people's perception of interconnection and interdependence, shared responsibility, and common goals. [2] [3] [4]

Understanding a community entails having knowledge of community needs and resources, having respect for community members, and involving key community members in programs. [5]

Benefits of local community

The author Robert Putnam refers to the value which comes from social networks as social capital in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. He writes that social capital "makes an enormous difference in our lives", that "a society characterized by generalized reciprocity is more efficient that a distrustful society" and that economic sociologists have shown a minimized economic wealth if social capital is lacking. [6]

Putnam reports that the first use of the social capital theory was by L. J. Hanifan, a practical reformer during the Progressive Era in the United States of America. The following description of social capital is a quote from L.J. Hanifan in Putnam's Book:

Those tangible substances [that] count for most in the daily lives of people: namely good will, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among individuals and families who make up a social unit…. The individual is helpless socially, if left to himself…. If he comes into contact with neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The community as a whole will benefit by the cooperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the help, sympathy, and fellowship of his neighbors. [7]

Employment

Putnam reported that many studies have shown that the highest predictor of job satisfaction is the presence of social connection in the workplace. He writes that "people with friends at work are happier at work." And that "social networks provide people with advice, a bonus, a promotion, and other strategic information, and letters of recommendation." [8]

Community engagement has been proven to counteract the most negative attributes of poverty and a high amount of social capital has been shown to reduce crime. [9]

Local community and health

"Social connectedness matters to our lives in the most profound way." -Robert Putnam. [10]

Robert Putnam reports, in the chapter Health and Happiness from his book Bowling Alone, that recent public research shows social connection impacts all areas of human health, this includes psychological and physical aspects of human health. Putnam says "...beyond a doubt that social connectedness is one of the most powerful determinates of our well being." [10] In particular it is face to face connections which have been shown to have greater impacts then non-face to face relationships. [11]

Specific health benefits of strong social relationships are a decrease in the likelihood of: seasonal viruses, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, depression, and premature death of all sorts. [10]

Online initiatives

There are online initiatives to improve local communities like LOCAL (www.localchange.com).

Community sustainability

Sustainability in community programs is the capacity of programs (services designed to meet the needs of community members) to continuously respond to community issues.

A sustained program maintains a focus consonant with its original goals and objectives, including the individuals, families, and communities it was originally intended to serve. Programs change regarding the breadth and depth of their programming. Some become aligned with other organizations and established institutions, whereas others maintain their independence. Understanding the community context in which programs serving the community function has an important influence on program sustainability and success. [12] [13] See table:

Sustainability elements→Middle-range program results→Ultimate result
Leadership competence. Effective collaboration. Understanding the community. Demonstrating program results. Strategic funding. Staff involvement and integration. Program responsivity.Participant needs met. Confidence in program survival. Effective sustainability planning.Sustainability. [12] [13]

Local economy

According to Washington state's Sustain South Sound organization, the top ten reasons to buy locally are: [14]

  1. To strengthen local economy: Studies have shown that buying from an independent, locally owned business, significantly raises the number of times your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms—continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community.
  2. Increase jobs: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally in the United States of America.
  3. Encourage local prosperity: A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.
  4. Reduce environmental impact: Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe. This means contributing less to greenhouse gas emissions, sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.
  5. Support community groups: Non-profit organizations receive an average 250% more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.
  6. Keep your community unique: Where we shop, where we eat and have fun—all of it makes our community home.
  7. Get better service: Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products they are selling and take more time to get to know customers.
  8. Invest in community: Local businesses are owned by people who live in the community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community's future.
  9. Put your taxes to good use: Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.
  10. Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy: A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

Suggested reading

See also

Related Research Articles

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A community is a social unit with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area or in virtual space through communication platforms. Durable good relations that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties also define a sense of community, important to people's identity, practice, and roles in social institutions such as family, home, work, government, TV network, society, or humanity at large. Although communities are usually small relative to personal social ties, "community" may also refer to large-group affiliations such as national communities, international communities, and virtual communities.

Communitarianism is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. Its overriding philosophy is based on the belief that a person's social identity and personality are largely molded by community relationships, with a smaller degree of development being placed on individualism. Although the community might be a family, communitarianism usually is understood, in the wider, philosophical sense, as a collection of interactions, among a community of people in a given place, or among a community who share an interest or who share a history. Communitarianism is often contrasted with individualism, and opposes laissez-faire policies that deprioritize the stability of the overall community.

Social capital is "the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively". It involves the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships, a shared sense of identity, a shared understanding, shared norms, shared values, trust, cooperation, and reciprocity. Some have described it as a form of capital that produces public goods for a common purpose, although this does not align with how it has been measured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microfinance</span> Provision of microloans to poor entrepreneurs and small businesses

Microfinance consists of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings and checking accounts; microinsurance; and payment systems, among other services. Microfinance services are designed to reach excluded customers, usually poorer population segments, possibly socially marginalized, or geographically more isolated, and to help them become self-sufficient. ID Ghana is an example of a microfinance institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corporate social responsibility</span> Form of corporate self-regulation aimed at contributing to social or charitable goals

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in, with, or supporting professional service volunteering through pro bono programs, community development, administering monetary grants to non-profit organizations for the public benefit, or to conduct ethically oriented business and investment practices. While once it was possible to describe CSR as an internal organizational policy or a corporate ethic strategy similar to what is now known today as Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG); that time has passed as various companies have pledged to go beyond that or have been mandated or incentivized by governments to have a better impact on the surrounding community. In addition, national and international standards, laws, and business models have been developed to facilitate and incentivize this phenomenon. Various organizations have used their authority to push it beyond individual or industry-wide initiatives. In contrast, it has been considered a form of corporate self-regulation for some time, over the last decade or so it has moved considerably from voluntary decisions at the level of individual organizations to mandatory schemes at regional, national, and international levels. Moreover, scholars and firms are using the term "creating shared value", an extension of corporate social responsibility, to explain ways of doing business in a socially responsible way while making profits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert D. Putnam</span> American political scientist

Robert David Putnam is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.

A need is dissatisfaction at a point of time and in a given context. Needs are distinguished from wants. In the case of a need, a deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. In other words, a need is something required for a safe, stable and healthy life while a want is a desire, wish or aspiration. When needs or wants are backed by purchasing power, they have the potential to become economic demands.

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<i>Bowling Alone</i> 2000 nonfiction book by Robert Putnam

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community is a 2000 nonfiction book by Robert D. Putnam. It was developed from his 1995 essay entitled "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital". Putnam surveys the decline of social capital in the United States since 1950. He has described the reduction in all the forms of in-person social intercourse upon which Americans used to found, educate, and enrich the fabric of their social lives. He argues that this undermines the active civic engagement which a strong democracy requires from its citizens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social insurance</span> Government-sponsored social program

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A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civic engagement</span> Individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern

Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.

Community building is a field of practices directed toward the creation or enhancement of community among individuals within a regional area or with a common need or interest. It is often encompassed under the fields of community organizing, community organization, community work, and community development.

<i>Better Together: Restoring the American Community</i> 2003 book

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Community education</span>

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The gort cloud is "a vast, largely invisible and growing (environmentally-aware) 'community' that sieves, measures and exchanges information on environmental (green) products and services." "The community includes NGOs, government agencies, certifying groups, academics, eco-tech specialists, business alliances, green media including green business news, sustainable designers, foundations, other social networks, conferences, trade shows, events, competitions, green blogs, special interest groups, and trendspotters—to name just a few." The book, "The Gort Cloud", examines the marketing and brand-building experiences of sustainable businesses in America and discusses the gort cloud concept. It was critically reviewed by TreeHugger in December 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. J. Hanifan</span>

Lyda Judson Hanifan, better known as L. J. Hanifan, is credited with introducing the concept of social capital. Robert Putnam in his book, Bowling Alone (2000) credits a 1916 paper by Hanifan as the first recorded instance of the term. Hanifan also authored a book published in 1920 that contains a chapter entitled "Social Capital".

A sustainability organization is (1) an organized group of people that aims to advance sustainability and/or (2) those actions of organizing something sustainably. Unlike many business organizations, sustainability organizations are not limited to implementing sustainability strategies which provide them with economic and cultural benefits attained through environmental responsibility. For sustainability organizations, sustainability can also be an end in itself without further justifications.

A community is "a body of people or things viewed collectively". According to Steven Brintgregates of people who share common activities and/or beliefs and who are bound together principally by relations of affect, loyalty, common values, and/or personal concern – i.e., interest in the personalities and life events of one another".

Social engagement refers to one's degree of participation in a community or society.

References

  1. ↑ Beck, U. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage
  2. ↑ Melissa M. Ahern, Michael S. Hendryx, Kris Siddharthan Medical Care, Vol. 34, No. 9 (Sep., 1996), pp. 863-986
  3. ↑ Chavis DM, Wandersman A. Sense of community in the urban environment: A catalyst for participation and community development. Am J Community Psychol 1990;18:55.
  4. ↑ McMillan DW, Chavis DM. Sense of community: A definition and theory. J Community Psychol 1986;14:6.
  5. ↑ Sustaining Community-Based Programs for Families: Conceptualization and Measurement Jay A. Mancini, Lydia I. Marek. Family Relations , Vol. 53, No. 4 (Jul., 2004), pp. 339-419.
  6. ↑ Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. pp.21,289-290.
  7. ↑ Lyda Judson Hanifan, "The Rural School Community Center," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 67 (1916): 130-138, quotation at 130. Found in Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Print.a
  8. ↑ Putnam, Robert D. (2000), p.90. Referencing: Jeanne S. Hurlbert, "Social Networks, Social Circles, and Job satisfaction," Work and Occupations, 18 (1991): 415-438; Randy Hodson, "Group Relations at Work: Solidarity, Conflict, and Relations with Management," Work and Occupations 24 (1997): 426-452; Ronnie Sandroff, "The power of Office Friendships," Working Mother (November 1997): 35-36, and the works cited there.
  9. ↑ Putnam, Robert D. (2000), pp.297-308.
  10. 1 2 3 Putnam, Robert D. (2000), p.326.
  11. ↑ Putnam, Robert D. (2000), p.332.
  12. 1 2 LaFond, A. K. (1995). Improving the quality of investment in health: Issues on sustainability. Health Policy and Planning (Suppl. 10), 63-76.
  13. 1 2 Sustaining Community-Based Programs for Families: Conceptualization and Measurement Jay A. Mancini, Lydia I. Marek. Family Relations, Vol. 53, No. 4 (July, 2004), pp. 339-419.
  14. ↑ Top Ten Reasons to Buy Local Archived 2010-03-07 at archive.today , Sustain South Sound, Washington, USA.
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