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Book No. – 17 (Sociology)
Book Name – Sociology (Yogesh Atal)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. THE CONCEPT OF COMMUNITY
2. DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPT OF COMMUNITY
3. FORMAL GROUPS: ASSOCIATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS
3.1. ASSOCIATION
4. FORMAL ORGANIZATIONS: BUREAUCRACY
4.1. BUREAUCRACY IN OPERATION: THE PATHOLOGY AND DYSFUNCTIONS
5. BUREAUCRACY AND NATION-BUILDING: A POST SCRIPT
6. ALLIANCES. COALITIONS AND NETWORKS
6.1. SHORT-LIVED ALLIANCES AT THE LEVEL OF INDIVIDUALS
6.2. NETWORKS
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LANGUAGE
Communities, Associations and Formal Organizations
Yogesh Atal
Chapter – 6
Table of Contents
THE CONCEPT OF COMMUNITY
- Community is a widely used term, with various meanings depending on context.
- It can be synonymous with society, or refer to a geographically distinct local community or a group of people sharing common origins.
- In the West, it has been applied to total institutions such as prisons or mental asylums and even residential schools.
- Jessie Bernard (1973) identified four classical paradigms in the sociology of community:
- Ecological Paradigm: Focuses on population distribution, settlement structures, and sociological variations; exemplified by the city of Chicago.
- Ranked-status or social class paradigm: Examines social class in communities; exemplified by the study of Yankee City.
- Power Paradigm: Focuses on power relations within a community.
- Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft: Classifies communities based on rural or urban habitats.
- The first three paradigms mainly focus on urban communities, while the fourth distinguishes between rural and urban settlements.
- Community is defined in terms of locale, common ties, and social interaction among inhabitants, whether dividing society by class or examining settlement patterns.
- Community studies in the U.S. primarily focused on urban areas, including distribution, sub-community social structure, and urbanization.
- Most settlements in America are urban, with some communities having populations as low as 12 to 15 families.
- Communities labeled as villages in America differ significantly from those in developing countries, like India.
- Anthropologists study tribes as communities in small villages or hamlets, focusing on their way of life.
- In India during the 1960s, the term community was used to describe rural village communities.
- Community Development Movement in the U.S. in the 1950s emphasized urban community development.
- The movement’s focus was mainly on urban communities, despite some being called villages, with profiles resembling urban rather than rural structures.
- In India, the term “community” gained prominence with the Community Development Programme (CDP) in the 1950s, which aimed to uplift rural villages and connect them with broader Indian society.
- Some scholars argued that the concept of community was only relevant in historical contexts, especially in urbanizing societies, correlating to Gesellschaft as described by Simmel.
- Harold F. Kaufman contended that community-type structures also exist in urban settings and should be studied for their role in community development planning.
- In the U.S., the community concept was tied to the creation of community life in newly formed urban areas, often among migrant groups with common cultural origins.
- American society largely consists of migrants who settled in urban areas, facing challenges in creating community life in these cities.
- In contrast, Indian society had a long history of village communities, and the aim was to develop and improve these existing communities by connecting them to the larger Indian civilization.
- The Community Development Programme in India aimed to uplift rural communities, while in the U.S., it sought to foster urban community life among people with shared cultural backgrounds.
- In the U.S., migrant groups like Italians in Chicago or Puerto Ricans in New York also sought to develop a sense of community in urban settings.