Commentary on the Future of Community Psychology: Perspective of a Research Community Psychologist

Community psychology is commented upon from the perspective of a community psychologist who was trained in the Community Psychology Program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her background and training are reviewed. A brief survey of research on homelessness as a frame for community psychology research is presented. Concluding remarks are provided on the future of research in community psychology.     

The Educational Community as In-tentional Community

This paper reassesses a perennial concern of philosophy of education: the nature of the educational community and the role of the teacher in relation to such a community. As an entry point into this broader question, we turn to Philosophy for children (P4C), which has consistently emphasized the importance of community. Yet, not unlike pragmatist notions of community more broadly, the P4C community has largely focused on the goal-directed, purposive, aspect of the process of inquiry. The purpose of our paper is to move beyond P4C (as it has traditionally been conceived) in order to theorize a non-instrumental, in-tentional, educational community without pre-conceived goals or intentions. Drawing largely from the work of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, we describe the P4C-classroom as one that refuses to be operative (moving forward toward reaching common goals) and thus undermines the taken-for-granted logic of means and ends that underlies how educational communities are typically depicted and justified. Again drawing from Agamben, we identify the specific ways in which the experience of love and friendship (both of which are pure means rather than means to an end) constitute the in-tentional community. The silence of the voice of the teacher enables the experience of love and friendship to come about. Being included as an exclusion via his/her silence, the teacher is neither immanent (facilitator of student learning) nor transcendent (outside or beyond learning) but alongside the community as a paradigm of friendship.     

社区变迁与社区建设的沿革

社区是指聚集在相对独立的区域内,通过社会交往而形成的人口共同体.本文首先从社会史学的角度勾勒了人类社区发展演变的三种形态,即血缘型社区、地缘型社区和业缘型社区的各自结构特征;然后结合对20世纪中叶展开的国际社区发展运动的回顾,分析了当代社会社区建设运动的兴起和国内社区建设的主要模式.     

社会群体中的偏好逻辑

在许多多主体偏好逻辑系统中,主体之间是没有联系的,因而无法描述主体间的偏好互动。借鉴＂The Logic in the Community＂一文中称为＂群体压力＂的例子对偏好的影响,本文在＂The Logic in the Community＂所提出的系统构架上,加入偏好算子和两个动态算子,通过构造归约公理说明这些算子可以被无偿添加,并借助这些规约公理证明了系统的完全性。     

Nonmonogamy in the Lesbian Community

No abstract available for this article.     

Community as Outsider Witness: Utilising Community Members in the Reconstitution of Problem-Saturated Identities

This study explored community members' ability to enlist discourses affirming of psychiatric patients' quest for generative identities. The participants were members of the public who attended an exhibition of psychiatric patients' artwork (n = 7, age range 18–55). A Foucauldian discourse analysis was used to analyse the research interviews. Results revealed that the majority of community members used dominant cultural discourses to speak about psychiatric patient-artists. These discourses conferred a problem-saturated identity on to psychiatric patients. We conclude that community members can be recruited as outsider witnesses to support psychiatric patients' search for generative identities, provided community members resist discourses that produce problem-saturated identity conclusions.     

A Community Practice Model for Community Psychologists and Some Examples of the Application of Community Practice Skills from the Partnerships for Success Initiative in Ohio

This paper provides an opportunity to consider the concept of community practice from the vantage point of community psychology. The author argues that community psychology has significant potential to change organizations, communities, and other settings to benefit setting occupants. However, it is the author's contention that the full realization of this potential is contingent upon an organized effort to engage in formal community practice. The author defines community practice in terms of four skill sets related to mobilization, planning, implementation, and evaluation. The author also describes settings that might support community practice and discusses implications for training and the field of community psychology in general. Finally, the author illustrates several community practice skills and roles in the context of a local community-based initiative in Ohio called Partnerships for Success.     

社区、社会资本与社区发育

社区发育作为社区发展理论的一个重要组成部分,在社区发展的研究中有着特别重要的意义.在现实社区中,由于对相关问题的忽视等原因,缺少社会资源和社会资本的情况十分普遍,它对于宏观社区的得失和其长期发展的兴衰,都具有不可估量的影响.本文要分析的问题是社区发育的概念是什么,它与社区建设的异同在哪里;社区的社会资本或者说其社会性的内涵是什么;社会资源、社会资本是如何形成和发育成长的;社会资本的创造与社区发育之间的内在联系是什么等.     

Networked Community Change: Understanding Community Systems Change through the Lens of Social Network Analysis

Addressing complex problems in communities has become a key area of focus in recent years (Kania & Kramer, 2013, Stanford Social Innovation Review). Building on existing approaches to understanding and addressing problems, such as action research, several new approaches have emerged that shift the way communities solve problems (e.g., Burns, 2007, Systemic Action Research; Foth, 2006, Action Research, 4, 205; Kania & Kramer, 2011, Stanford Social Innovation Review, 1, 36). Seeking to bring clarity to the emerging literature on community change strategies, this article identifies the common features of the most widespread community change strategies and explores the conditions under which such strategies have the potential to be effective. We identify and describe five common features among the approaches to change. Then, using an agent‐based model, we simulate network‐building behavior among stakeholders participating in community change efforts using these approaches. We find that the emergent stakeholder networks are efficient when the processes are implemented under ideal conditions.     

社区文化建设的几点思考

社区文化是社区的一切活动灵魂所在,它的建设对和谐社区的构建目标有着积极的作用。本文将从社区文化的含义、社区文化的功能、社区的社区文化的基本现状以及如何加强社区的文化建设进行一一阐述。     

Sense of Community Responsibility in Community Collaboratives: Advancing a Theory of Community as Resource and Responsibility

This paper contributes to the growing body of scholarship aimed at advancing our understanding of the experience of community by empirically investigating sense of community responsibility (SOC-R) in relation to traditional measures of sense of community (SOC) and indices of satisfaction, engagement, and leadership in interorganizational collaborative settings. Findings support the proposition that, although both are related to the experience of community, SOC and SOC-R emphasize different aspects of that experience and operate under different theoretical mechanisms of influence. SOC emphasizes community as a resource which was found to be a more salient aspect in differentiating those who will be more or less satisfied with their experience. In addition, SOC was found to predict general participation in a community collaborative. SOC-R emphasizes the experience of community as a responsibility which appears to be a stronger predictor in explaining higher order engagement requiring greater investment of time and resources. Even more importantly, this study indicates that SOC-R is uniquely equipped to help us advance models of community leadership. As such, it represents an important contribution to expanding our understanding of the factors that drive members’ willingness to give of themselves toward collective aims.     

Community Psychology and the Capabilities Approach

What makes for a good life? The capabilities approach to this question has much to offer community psychology, particularly with respect to marginalized groups. Capabilities are freedoms to engage in valued social activities and roles—what people can do and be given both their capacities, and environmental opportunities and constraints. Economist Amartya Sen’s focus on freedoms and agency resonates with psychological calls for empowerment, and philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s specification of requirements for a life that is fully human provides an important guide for social programs. Community psychology’s focus on mediating structures has much to offer the capabilities approach. Parallels between capabilities, as enumerated by Nussbaum, and settings that foster positive youth development, as described in a National Research Council Report (Eccles and Gootman (Eds) in Community programs to promote youth development. National Academy Press, Washington, 2002 ) suggest extensions of the approach to children. Community psychologists can contribute to theory about ways to create and modify settings to enhance capabilities as well as empowerment and positive youth development. Finally, capabilities are difficult to measure, because they involve freedoms to choose but only choices actually made or enacted can be observed. The variation in activities or goals across members of a setting provides a measure of the capabilities that the setting fosters.