2 Understanding the concept of community

Dr. Ajit Kumar

Content Outline

• Ø  Objectives of the module
• Ø  Understand the nature of community.
• Ø  Understand  community as a system
• Ø Understand  community in the Indian context.
• Ø  Communities and Social Change
• Ø  Frame effective measures of intervention for human betterment.
• Ø  Let us sum up
• Ø  Multiple choice questions
• Ø  Suggested readings.

Introduction

Interactions among people takes place at four levels : individual, group, community and society. All of these levels are interconnected and interdependent but yet each is different from the other.

I. Objectives of the module

This module aims at enabling the learner

1.    To understand the nature of community.

2.    To understand community as a system

3.  To understand     community in the Indian context.

4.    To understand communities in the context of social change

5.   To use this understanding to frame effective measures of intervention for human betterment.

II. Understand the nature of community.

Community as one level of human interaction is different from the other three levels. When we talk of community we are talking of people in a group. Can this concept be applied to any group of people? The answer is No. For a group of people to form a community the following three criteria must be fulfilled:

2.1. The group must live in the same geographical area It could be a village in a rural area or a neighbourhood in an urban area.

2.2. Members of this group must share some common social and economic features. For example people of the same linguistic or religious or caste background living in the same geographical area. And also they should share similar occupational and income characteristics. For example people living together in a slum in an urban area are occupationally similar because a majority of them must be working in the unorganised sector. Similarly a majority of the people in a village community share common occupational characteristics because they are in some way linked to agriculture-based occupations.

2.3. This group of people because of the above two features develop a sense of cohesiveness and common identification over a period of time. This psychological we-feeling emerging from a shared living is the most significant marker of community consciousness.

When a group of people fulfil these three criteria then they form a community. Not otherwise.

III. Understand community as a system

It must now be clear that a community is a complex social structure. To understand this complexity one needs to look at community as a system. What is a system? A community is a system because :

3.1. A community has many parts.

3.2. Each part has a role to play.

3.3. Each part is functionally linked to the other part.

3.4. These parts fulfilling their respective roles together lead to a totality which is much larger than the respective individual parts.

A system is a ‘live’ entity. It is active. It is in a continuous process of functioning and creation.

The sub-systems of community:

To study and understand the many different parts of a community one can divide it into the following three sub-systems:

3.5. Community as an economic sub-system.

As an economic sub-system occupation, income, expenditure, ownership of assets and infrastructure of the community are the five key aspects to be studied.

3.5.1. Occupation

Occupations are of two types: primary and secondary. This classification needs to be understood in two ways : the first with reference to numbers and the second with respect to earnings.

a.  Occupations with reference to numbers

Occupations engaging a majority of the people of a community are referred to as the primary occupation of that community. For example agriculture is the primary occupation of a village community because a majority of the people living in a village is working either as cultivators or as labourers. Secondary occupations are those occupations in which fewer numbers of people are economically engaged in. In a village for example one or two persons will work as a barber [navi or a carpenter (sutar) or an ironsmith (lohar) or a potter (kumbhar) .

b.  Occupation with reference to income

In case of an individual or a household with more than one occupation the definition would change. Primary occupation would be that occupation which brings in the largest share of their income. For example in a marginal farmer household one member may be cultivating a small patch of dryland while other members may be working as labourers. In such a case wages earned from labour may be more than the income derived from growing a crop. Labour work becomes the primary occupation for this household and farming the secondary occupation.

3.5.2. Income

Income refers both to the sum of money received and the mode of receiving it.

a.  Sum of money received

From the sum received we can ascertain whether the household is poor or not. To identify such a household government has fixed a ‘below poverty line’ [BPL criteria and based on this criteria estimated a certain number of households to be poor. This criteria and estimate is important because households falling below the threshold level are the most vulnerable households requiring interventions.

b.  Mode of receiving

The mode of receiving will differ both from occupation to occupation and when it is received. A cultivator will earn only after she/he sells in the market while a labourer may receive wages on a daily or weekly or even on an annual basis. A petty vendor living in a slum in a town will earn only if he/she goes out to sell and this may not be possible for all days. Understanding the mode of receiving tells us whether the earning is regular or not. If irregular then the household is more vulnerable.

Occupation is linked to income. A household working in the organised sector is more likely to have a regular income than one working in the unorganised sector. Regular income means stability and less vulnerabilities.

3.5.3. Expenditure

Identifying the pattern of expenditure of a household enables us to assess the degree of their vulnerability. For which the percentage of expenditure for meeting the primary needs of a household need to be estimated. Food, clothing and shelter [roti, kapda, makan are the primary needs of a household. The higher the percentage of expenditure a household incurs on meeting their primary needs the greater will be their vulnerability.

3.5.4. Ownership of assets

Assets refer to land, cattle, building, equipment, tools and any goods which help a household to increase production. The presence of a large number of vulnerable households in India is because of a highly skewed distribution of assets. A household without assets will find it difficult to educate their children, plan for a livelihood for them and meet family crises situations. Many households over generations have improved their asset base.

3.5.5. Community infrastructure

This aspect refers to the availability of facilities related to water, health, toilets, lanes, drainage, schooling and energy sources in the community and to their effective usage by the community.

3.6. Community as a political sub-system

The word political signifies power. Power is a defining element of human society. It manifests itself in all aspects of human life and expresses itself in different forms. Power refers to human will which expresses itself through both persuasion and coercion. The following are the two important features of power:

i. Though not visible it is real and manifests itself constantly in various forms.

ii.  It is constantly changing. Human history is a changing narrative of societies, countries, nation and people rising to power and then ebbing away.

How does one study the abstract concept of power in relation to a community? For this study a learner needs to examine the power structure of the community. To examine this power structure the following three questions need to be answered

3.6.1. Who has power in the community?

To identify where power is located in a community one identifies the leaders of the community. Community leadership is of the following two types:

a.  Formal leaders

Formal leaders mean individuals holdings positions in organizations. Identifying formal leaders is not difficult because listing out such organizations and their office bearers is possible.

b.  Informal leaders

Informal leaders refer to individuals not holdings positions in organizations but yet are influential. A community may have a few such individuals. How does one identify such individuals? One way is to ask community members to list out people in the community to whom they would go in case of emergencies. Picking out the common names from these lists and then eliminating the position holders would lead us to the informal leaders of the community.

3.6.2. What are its bases?

Leadership emerges from human action and these actions have bases. The bases could be of different types. It could be belonging to a dominant caste exercising power in the locality or the high educational attainment of an individual or belonging to an influential family or the ability to distribute patronage. Generally speaking a combination of these bases would lead to influence.

3.6.3. How is power used?

Power by its very nature cannot remain static. It needs to be exercised constantly for it to grow. In the absence of these exercises power tends to wane. Since community leaders do exercise their powers then the question which arises is whom does these exercises benefit. Is it for the larger good? Or, for a small section of the people? For example does a community leader exercise her/his power mostly for the benefit of his/her caste people? Or for their families? In such cases power becomes destructive and unsustainable in the long run.

A power structure to be sustainable needs to articulate a larger vision. A vision to be large needs to encompass more and more vulnerable categories of people. The leadership needs to seriously address

vulnerabilities common to the community such as, problems of livelihood, schooling, health, drinking water and so on.

3.7. Community as a social sub-system.

Community as a social sub-system encompasses the following aspects:

3.7.1. Family and marriage

Broadly speaking families are of three types : joint, nuclear and single parent. Marriages are of two or three types: arranged marriages, marriages by choice and a combination of the two.

3.7.2. Value systems

Values mean the normative faith underlying human action and are of two types:

Universal and culture-specific. ‘Always speak the truth’ is a universal value.

Vegetarianism or non-vegetarianism is a culture-specific value.

3.7.3. Religion and religious practices

The following two aspects are important: the practices of worship and the beliefs underlying them

3.7.4. Food practices

Food practices needs to be studied from two perspectives: nutrition and the beliefs underlying them.

IV. Understand community in the Indian context

Professor K.D. Gangrade has pointed out that in the Indian context one needs to include caste as a criterion in determining community boundaries. But this goes against the principle of territoriality defining a community as mentioned in the second section. Caste has divided Indian society both horizontally and vertically. In the context of community it is the horizontal division which is of greater significance because it cuts across the territorial ties of people living together in a community. For example the ties of caste bind people living in one village with their caste fellow people living in other villages. Here territory does not matter. This horizontal binding erodes away community consciousness of people living in one geographical or territorial area.

In India an individual and his/her family have deep-binding caste ties. Marital ties are the key tie further cementing caste consciousness. These ties entail obligations and responsibilities on the individual and his/her family. A caste community excludes members from the other castes. In contrast a community based on geographical and territorial proximity is inclusive because it includes everyone living in the neighbourhood.

The 1952 Community Development Programme was the first programme of rural development launched by Independent India and it aimed at the betterment of all the people living in a village irrespective of their caste background. This aspect as Professor A.R. Desai pointed was a novel feature because it went against the traditional Indian caste and religious communities.

V. Communities and social change

A community is not a constant entity. It is not static. Its nature changes over time. A community from the pre-industrial age is quite different from one belonging to the industrial or the post-industrial age. This change was first conceptualised by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies who used the concept of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft to describe the two types of communities.

5.1. Gemeinschaft

An individual born in this type of community completely assimilates the norm of this community. His/her sense of belonging to this community is an unquestioned fact of life. It is the community which determines the perception of the individual and their roles in life is a natural outcome of these perceptions and value systems. These communities belong to the pre-industrial age where social and occupational mobility was low and where agriculture and animal husbandry were the main occupations. These are traditional communities.

5.2. Gesellschaft

In contrast, the Gesellschaft type of community is an associational one because individuals here engage with other individuals voluntarily and in pursuit of their own interests. Individuals here are bound together not by unquestioned perceptions of reality but by personal choice. For Tonnies this society led to the mass society of rootless individuals. This community belonged to the industrial age where social and occupational mobility was high and a significant number of people were working in the industrial and service sectors of the economy. These are modern communities.

VI. Frame effective measures of intervention for human betterment.

The understanding which we have gained from the above five sections should enable us to frame intervention measures. Below four steps have been outlined:

1.  Identify the target group requiring intervention.

2.  Decide on the vulnerability which needs to be addressed.

3.  Step-wise list out the intervention measures.

4.  Evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention measures.

6.1. Example one

1.    Profiling all the small children below the age of six in the community. [Target-group.

2.    Seeing that all such children in the community come to the anganwadi and that their weight is appropriate to their age. [Vulnerability.

3.    Home visits and coordinating with the anganwadi sevika. [Intervention-Measures.

4.    Are all the listed children coming to the anganmwadi? Is their body weight normal? [Evaluation.

6.2. Example two

1. Profiling all the boys and girls in the age group of 15-17 in the community. (Target-group)
2. Seeing that all of them successfully complete ten years of schooling. (Vulnerability)
3. Home visits, tutorials and coordinating with the local school authorities. (Intervention-Measures)
4. Have all the boys and girls in the 15-17 age group successfully completed their schooling? (Evaluation)

Summary

From the above sections we have learnt that for a group of people to be viewed as a community it is essential that they fulfil three criteria. They must all live together in a locality or a neighborhood. They must share similar social and economic characteristics. These two together must lead to the emergence of a we-feeling among this group. A community can be viewed as a system further subdivided into economic, political and social sub-systems. Caste communities are the living reality of India but it goes against the conceptual definition of community because it builds up horizontal ties eroding away the ties of territoriality. Communities are not static entities. Over time they change from a communal entity to an associational entity.

Our understanding of a community must lead to the framing of the following effective measures of intervention : identifying a target-group, identifying their vulnerability, operationalizing the steps for intervention and evaluating the intervention measures for their effectiveness.

References

1. Cox, Fred M. et al (1960): “Communities” In Cox, Fred M.  et al  (ed.) Strategies of Community Organization – A Book of Readings, F.E. Peocock Publishers: Itasca.

2. Desai A.R. (1984): ‘Community Development Projects – A Sociological Analysis’ InA.R. Desai (ed.) Rural Sociology of India, Popular Prakashan : Bombay

3. Gangrade, K.D. ( 1971): Community Organization in India Popular Prakashan : Bombay
4. Kumar, Ajit (2005):“Social Work Among Communities”, In General Areas of SocialWork Practice -Social Work Intervention with Individuals and Groups – BSWE-002, Indira Gandhi National Open University School of Continuing Education: Delhi
5. Mehta, M.S. & Sohan Singh (1968): “Adult Education” In Encyclopaedia of SocialWork in India, Volume one, Publications Division, Government of India.
6. Presthus, Robert (1960) : “Community Power Structure : Theoretical Framework” In Cox, Fred M. et al (ed.) Strategies of Community Organization – A Book ofReadings, F.E. Peocock Publishers: Itasca