Four Approaches to Community sociology
The four approaches to community sociology include: Typological, ecological, systems, and theory. They all have some influence on how we see the world today in a community based realm. The typological approach begins with the ideas of Tonnies. His foundation began with the terms Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Tonnies explains that there has been a transition in the world from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft. The rise in industrialization and social change identifies this transition. Tonnies unlike his predecessors has actually done field research on the matter to prove his theory. Basically, individualistic and capitalistic attitudes developed. Some strengths of this idea include empirical research has proven that there are differences in areas of a city or country. People in different areas see things differently and depending on the length of residency in that area makes a difference in their outlook. Another strong point about Tonnies' theory is that it has allowed for change to occur in the areas where it was possible for change to better the economy and living conditions. Some weaknesses of this theory are the fact that it isn't very broad in the sense that there are so many other possibilities to explain why areas
Non-Marxist conflict approaches focus on politics, economy and values. Conflict stems from these three things. Community conflict gathers together reports of numerous local controversies and seeks out commonalities to develop a general theory of community conflict. David Harvey is a liberal conflict theorist. He says that in order to maintain the system adjustments must be made all the time. Capitalism changes urban spatial patterns in an attempt to save itself from its' own excesses. When independent capitalists produce more than can be consumed it results in unemployment and falling prices. Physical patterns of urban structure and growth reflect the exploitation, development, and contradictions of capitalism. Why is there a movement towards Gesellschaft? Capitalism is a key variable in the causation. Marx explains this end of the theory and says that economic development depends on the role of money. The development of factory based towns makes for power within that town. All of these other factors such as labor costs and labor workers have impact on the society. Factory jobs allow for people to see their economic status is a whole new way. It gives them a sense of advancement and accomplishment. The money that is made and used for everyday needs becomes used in investments for the future. People and their quality of life changes when the economy changes. Although systems theory is not community based, inadvertently it has great potential to the community approach. Durkheim explains the increasing division of labor and the breakdown of mechanical solidarity. The growing of interests and associations develops this theory because community is viewed as an interactional field. There is an emphasis on people as individual actors that provides an important counterbalance territorial analysis. Some strengths of this approach are that it focuses on the statistical part of the concepts of community. This is needed to figure out ways to make things better for people through changes and conformity. A weakness is that the statistical data doesn't give a vivid picture of what is really going on. It just hides behind what really is going on. The Conflict approach deals with the Marxist
Some common words found in the essay are:
Robert Park's, Gemeinschaft Gesellschaft, Gesellschaft Capitalism, David Harvey, Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft Affective, , Basically Parsons, Gesellschaft Tonnies, theory community, typological approach, conform changes environment, urban structure growth, theorists focus, people interact, local units, theory separates, idea pattern variables, ecological approach, gemeinschaft gesellschaft, urban structure, strengths approach,
Approximate Word count = 1498
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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