IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING COMMUNITY DYNAMICS AND COMMUNITY ACTION

The Living Commune

 The word COMMUNITY in its literal form is defined by two characteristics: LOCATION and
SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION.

 First, a COMMUNITY can be defined simply as a group of individuals bound within a specific
geographic location.

 Second, a COMMUNITY is an example of a collective that identifies common traits, goals, or

customs. Communities bind individuals into a collective whole.

 A COMMUNITY is a living social entity and goes beyond the old categorization of space as its
primary definition. More than a space, a community is made up of people: YOU and I.

 People within a community act in the same way and of same importance. Our society has life,
has vibrancy and every single one is integral to support this structure as everybody else.

 The synergy between the self, community, and the environment seems to be organic; yet in
practice, this is the challenge that confronts all communities in general.

 The main obstacle is to compromise all these actors, trivalities, and circumstances into an
effective social machinery compose of living parts.

Basics of a Community

1. Self-Help

 When we think of Community, we think of how people come together to form a singular
faction. We see it as a structure that is made up of individuals bound by something abstract
and unforeseen.

 The concept of SELF-HELP is about ho individuals seek personal development without the help
of others. However, self-help defines a community once each individual wants and needs
intersect, therefore justifying a need to unify.

2. Community Ownership

 Ownership, in this sense, is the level of commitment and accountability that an individual has
for the community. This can be summed up by the level of involvement the community and its
members hold in the most basic operational structures of the commune.

 These social categorizations bind individuals and groups toward specific goals, concerns and
issues.
  Problems within communities are shared just as resources and opportunities. Ownership is a
necessity for the members of the community if they aspire to improve their current situation.

3. Community Participation

 Individuals can provide their own contributions through acts of volunteerism in projects and
other communal initiatives.

 Participation is not only focused on being part of an ongoing project but an individual should
also be an active member by taking part in the managerial and organizational development of
the community, which includes the conceptualization, planning, operationalization and review
of initiatives.

 Existent communal models of participation include town halls, focus group discussions,
forums and through informal channels which can include everyday affairs.

 Existent communal models of participation include town halls, focus group discussions,
forums and through informal channels which can include everyday affairs.

 An active community is one of the most important facets of a healthy community because it
characteristically directs issue discourses into tangible and structured dilemmas that can be
solved and operationalized via pragmatic and sustainable solutions created by the combined
efforts, ideas, expertise and experiences of the group.

4. Inclusion

 One aspect of the community that is Integral in building the collective into a whole. As a form
of social assembly, the personalities within a community are different and unique.

 In respect to culture, race, religion and other identifiable social identities, one person is
unique as to the other. Such backgrounds, histories, mores and customs vary and yet should
be integrated into the local communal social fabric.

5. Access and equity

 These two are the goals that a commune must strive for to create a better society. Access and
equity imply the ease in which various individuals and groups can attain the basic necessities
and resources.

 They push for a just allocation of goods and opportunities that is without discrimination and
prejudice toward people.

 Significantly, they provide power and social protection among its citizens through the
continued improvement of its structures under political, economic, sociocultural,
technological, legal and environmental aspects.
The Community as a Movement

A community is more than just a collective. It acts much like a living entity that takes on life. Living
within the imaginations of its members, a community also embodies a perspective, identity and stand,
much like a social movement.

1. Advocacies
 Formed by the community and its leaders. To improve and garner support,
communities try to garner support from other individuals or groups which
are aligned with their worldview.
 Advocacies include multitudes of topics where people are compelled to push
for value-specific agendas that are shared through their supporters
2. Networking
 Formations are created with the organic networking of actors that later on
find commonalities and avenues for cooperation and partnerships.
 The creation of these networks is also both formal and informal since there is
really no limit to where collaboration can happen or manifest.
3. Social Action
 Standing on the foundation of advocacies and networking is the hope for
social action. The community hopes to address the issues of the status quo
through combined efforts of actors.
 Planning, conceptualization, operationalization and implementation of action
will not be possible without political will of actors toward meeting general
compromise to effect social change.