Describing your community

You need to know enough about the target community to make a viable plan. You will be better able to navigate the community and be less surprised by the kinds of problems that arise if you start with a good understanding of the community. Start by reading this page and the e-books listed below. You don't have to do everything that they suggest, just what you need: Community Development Guide | Crossing cultures (Intercultural adaptation) | Ethnography | Pioneering

 

What to do ...

As you learn about your target community, write it down and put it in a report. This will be important for planning what you will do.

 

In the introduction

Who are they? It might be as simple as defining an ethnic group. Otherwise, the meaning of "community" varies. Defining community is easy in villages and rural communities; everybody knows each other, many are related, some may work together, and they buy and sell together. In cities, however, a community may be defined very differently. If you define community as geographical location, people may not know each other and may have only "consumer-provider" links with local providers of goods and services. In this case, the idea of "community" does not include personal relationships. You can also define city communities in other ways. For example, they may not know the people in their own area, but may know many people of their ethnic group across the city. What characteristics define this community? For example:

Then review the literature if there is a body of literature on the community. This will save you reinventing the wheel. Stick with what is relevant to your project, and make sure you don't get off-track.

The second part of the introduction should give a picture of the community based on your fieldwork.

  1. Say when and where you did the fieldwork for the description. Where did you go? How did you select people to interview?
  2. Say how you structured the report. Your final outline should be a fair representation of the views of the people in the community, not based on any preconceived views that you might have.
  3. Include a map showing: orientation (north), major communication links, major interaction centers, and major community services.

 

The body of the text

These questions will help guide your thinking:

  1. Are there social, political, cultural, historical factors that help define them?
  2. How is it structured? Who makes decisions? Who do they look to for leadership to solve problems?
  3. Does it have any defining practices and values?
  4. How diverse is the culture of the community?
  5. How do people communicate with each other?
  6. What are the major venues where people interact with each other? (E.g. mosque, school, market, etc.) How do they work and what do they achieve
  7. What are the major social groupings, according to the people in the community? (They might group people differently from you as an outsider.)
  8. How do the different groups view each other?
  9. In the community, how is "power" defined?
  10. Describe the predominant formal power structures.
  11. Describe the predominant informal power structures.
  12. Who are the key decision-makers?
  13. What networks and social structures are there?
  14. Who would be the stakeholders in your proposed project? They might be community organizations, individuals, community leaders, government bodies, and/or funding organizations.
  15. To what extent is the culture defined by social interactions? What other factors are significant?
  16. How are families structured (nuclear, extended, clan, etc.)?
  17. What do they consider deviant behavior?
  18. How do they define themselves as a community? How do they construct identity?
  19. What specialized knowledge will you need for community development? It could be knowledge pf of a subgroup of people or to do community development? (E.g. aged, youth, women) Or it could be a specialized area of study: health, housing, environment, multiculturalism, family violence. etc
  20. How do the values and structures of the community  impact on individuals and groups?
  21. Identify the preferred means of dealing with individuals and groups
  22. Examine and analyze the local cultural mindset in its relevance for your project.
    1. What are the current and emerging trends?
    2. What is the effect of popular culture? (e.g. movies, popular TV shows, music, magazines, fads, newspapers)
    3. What worldview and presuppositions will they come to the program with? (e.g. animism, secularism, etc.)
  23. What effects and implications could politics have?
    1. Examine the political circumstances and trends that might affect what you want to do. What if another party gets elected to government? Are new political parties arising?
    2. What legislation and government policy might affect you there? Are new laws currently being introduced into parliament? These will vary, but may include duty of care, police clearances, restrictions on activities, restriction of Christian or foreign organizations, etc.
    3. Are there particular sociopolitical attitudes to Christianity (e.g. persecution)
  24. Describe social circumstances and trends and examine the implications for your project. These may include demographic shifts (such as aging population), movement from regions to the city, AIDS, changes in family structures (e.g. from dual to single parent families, from extended to nuclear families, blended families).
  25. Economic context might be relevant, and certainly will be important to poverty alleviation programs:
    1. Is unemployment high or low?
    2. How much disposable income do people have?
    3. What priorities do people have for spending money?
    4. Are people heavily in debt?
    5. Are people generally optimistic about their economic futures?
    6. Do they have non-cash economies? E.g. subsistence farmers, barter economies, communal labor pooling for major projects, volunteer labor?
  26. Describe your organization in terms of the following:
    1. history (why, when, and how it was established, its subsequent development, its current health; its future prospects)
    2. informal and formal control structures
    3. sociology and demography
    4. distinctives and rationale
    5. concept of CD and
    6. what expectations it makes of its leaders.

For each of the above, identify the effects on and implications for CD at the present time and the foreseeable future.