Complete a case study focusing a community, organization or small group. Choose a community, organization or small group with which you are very familiar. Papers should be 6-8 pages of TEXT (writing) and 8-10 pages if you count title page and references. You do not need an abstract. Please use headings. (1) Choose 3 theories and 3 concepts from the chapters in the textbook on your macro system. (2) Discuss the theories and concepts and give examples of how each theory and concept applies to the macro system. (3) Describe the influence of diversity on the community, organization or small group. Citations from the texts MUST be integrated throughout the paper. You may use material from social work journal articles. A reference page in APA style of referencing must be included. Choose theories and concepts from those specified in each client system: Organizations 3 Theories (bureaucracy, human relations, scientific management, political economy, systems, managing diversity model, social action) 3 Concepts (Human service organization (classification), leadership, external vs internal environment, homogeneous vs heterogeneous environment, organizational structure, (official vs operative), mission, hybrid organization, developmental stages of organization boundary, interface, input/output, Hawthorne effect, privatization) Diversity issues Application Clarity Community 3 Theories (spatial arrangements approach, human ecology, social capital, social systems, conflict) 3 Concepts (types of community, mutual support, social participation, community development, investment, gemeinschaft, gesellshaft, horizontal and vertical linkages, interface, input/output) Diversity issues Application Clarity Groups 3 Theories (self-categorization, role, systems, field, exchange, symbolic interaction) 3 Concepts (structure, process, hierarchy, norms, open/closed, stages of group development, group leadership, primary, secondary, formed vs natural, cohesiveness) Diversity issues Application ClarityCommunities
• Unit of people, social unit based on:
– Common location
– Interest
– Identity
– Culture or common activities
2 major categories of communities
• Common locality—place
• Interest/identification
Communities characterized in
terms of 3 dimensions
• Functional spatial unit meeting sustenance
needs
• Unit of patterned social interaction
• Symbolic unit of collective identity
• Communities of place vary by on these
dimensions.
Communities of place
• Vary also by size, density, heterogeneity
• Are overlapping, people reside in multiple
communities
• Multiple memberships in communities of
interest
• Communities of interest often coincide
with communities of place
Ecological and systems both useful
to understand
• Communities of interest
-important for organizing
• Communities of place
– Important for social planning
Functions of communities
• Production-distribution-consumption (schools,
housing, religious systems)
• Socialization-transmit prevailing knowledge and
values
• Social control-influence people to conform to
norms (police, schools)
• Social participation-through vol and religious
groups.
• Mutual support-friends, neighbors, health
agencies
• Market place-people exchange resources
Communities often
distinguished by
• Gesellshaft-impersonal relationships,
contractual, logical, and rationale.
• Gemesinshaft-personal relationships that
are intimate, traditional and informal-small
towns where everyone knows each other.
Vertical and horizontal patterns
• Horizontal –link the various community
subsystems; advance own goals and
goals of community
• Vertical-links social units within a
community to other units outside the
community.
Theoretical perspectives on
communities
•
•
•
•
•
•
Structural perspective
Ecological
Power
Functionalist
Social psychological
Social systems
Structural
• Focus is on how the parts of the system
are organized to become one whole
• How do the component parts relate to
each other?
• 3 ways to viewing the community
structurally
3 ways to viewing community
structurally
• (1) Political-legal- official units in the community
designed as townships, county,
municipality…they fulfill many political and social
functions and mediate between central powers
and individuals
• Communities are seen as political subsystems
within a larger political systems
• Mediate between smaller and larger systems
around issues (taxes, voting)
• (2) Geographical organization- how are
tracts of land, public lands, roads
used?arranged?
• (3) power structure-which units have the
most power and influence, power
associated with money, land, social status,
education, political leaders, industrial
executives, religious leaders
Human Ecological
• Primacy to natural forces that shape the
relationships between all life forms and the
habitat they share
• Human ecological concept of competition,
survival of the fittest
• Focus on the segregation and integration
of species…important to assess…and
helps SW analyze community in terms of
fairness and supportiveness
• Emphasis on the interdependence which
develops within communities (size,
density, land use, heterogeneity)
Ecological
• Focus on the relationships of populations
to their environments, especially with
regard to the distribution of people and
resources
• How people are clustered
• What are transactions like?
• Focus on demographics, environmental
issues, depletion of scarce resources,
overpopulation
Ecological concepts
• Symbiosis- coexistance between life forms
that share the same habitat.
• Competition-humans and life forms
compete for space
• Dominance-one form of life dominates
over other forms
• Succession-pattern of change that can be
seen in communities.
Ecological concentrates on feature
of the population within a
geographic area
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Urbanization
Gentrification
Social class
Racial and ethnic composition
Age structure
Family compositions
Occupations
Years in school
Features of the population
important because
•
•
•
•
Determines location of services
Relation of need to services
Changes over time
Different help seeking patterns
Community Power Theory
• Elitist Position
• Pluralist Position
Elitist
• Decisions made in a community through
the power structure:
• Power-moving others to act in relation to
self
• Power structure-vertical axis
Pluralist Position
• Identified a small group of leaders, larger
group of subleaders and much larger
group of people with little influence.
• Did not find a large cohesive group of
leaders who exercised power in large
number of difference areas.
• Decisions largely by public officials by
specialized area.
CONFLICT THEORIES
• HELP SW UNDERSTAND CONFLICT
AND INEQUALITY BETWEEN
PERSONS, GROUPS,
COMMUNITIES AND LARGER
SOCIAL SYSTEMS
• ENHANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING
OF POWER STRUCTURES AND
POWER DIFFERENCES THAT
IMPACT PEOPLE’S LIVES
• USEFUL IN FORMING
ASSESSMENTS INVOLVING
OPPRESSION AND
VULNERABILITY
• GUIDE MACRO-LEVEL PRACTICE
22
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• In 1988 Abraham named two distinct
traditions of classical conflict theory:
• 1. power relationships in politics and
• 2. competitive struggle in economics.
• Contemporary social theory represents
a synthesis of these two.
• Karl Marx is the leading theorist.
23
KEY CONCEPTS
• Conflict theory is a broad term that
includes several theories.
• It is seen as a fact of social life and a
natural process in society.
• Change, not stability (structural
functionalism), is the norm.
• Conflict theorists identify the importance of
coercion, constraint and domination in
society
24
KEY CONCEPTS
• Two categories of conflict:
• conflict within a system or society. It
includes conflict about change, values,
authority and resources.
• conflict that occurs between systems or
from the external environment.
25
Basic concepts
• Self-interests are basic in social life;
• Social life involves coercion and groups
with different interests;
• Social life generates opposition, exclusion,
hostility and conflict;
• Social differences involve power and are
not united or harmonious;
• Social systems change
26
KARL MARX
• Conflict is desirable.
• It propels social action against
oppression.
• Conflict is result of inequality resulting
from social class differences.
• (Social functionalists regard conflict as a
threat to the system survival).
27
KEY DEFINITIONS
• Conflict is a clash or struggle between opposing forces
or interests.
• Power is the ability to control and influence collective
decisions and actions.
• Minority refers to groups that have limited access to
power.
• Change is the transition or transformation from one
condition or state to another.
• It can be rapid of slow, radical or conservative,
evolutionary or revolutionary.
• It is normative and healthy.
28
CLASS CONFLICT: KARL MARX
• Marx saw contemporary society as a
polarization between two dominant
classes:
• the workers (the proletariat) and
• the capitalists (the bourgeoisie).
• Marx saw most of history as class
struggle.
• Class struggle and struggle over
resources have always been central in
society.
29
CLASS CONFLICT: KARL MARX
• Most important is the ownership of the means and tools
of production that determines one’s social class.
• Property is concentrated in the hands of the few (the
bourgeoisie), and
• the others (proletariat) are forced to sell their labor to the
privileged owners.
• The main problem is exploitation, because the owners
want to maximize their profits and worker wages do not
reflect the wealth of their work.
• Poverty in society is the result of worker exploitation,
and creates alienation.
30
C. WRIGHT MILLS: THE POWER
ELITE
• The media plays a large roll in disguising the power
structure.
• The elite owns and controls the media and manipulates
the masses into believing that the democratic process
still exists.
• They sway our opinion about issues and even “create”
issues to distract us.
• They can control what we see, read and hear through
the media.
• The elite give orders for their own interests with little
accountability to the masses.
31
INTEREST GROUP CONFLICT
• Some theorists believe that political, economic and
social power reside in the hands of the small elite;
• Others think that no one group has control, because
people with diverse interests join together to form
coalitions.
• These theorists believe that conflict is a permanent
feature of society, but believe that conflict exists between
groups rather than between classes.
32
INTEREST GROUP CONFLICT
• Interest groups unlike the elite undergo constant change.
• If one group becomes too powerful, a veto group will
form in opposition to restore the balance of power.
• The image of society portrayed in interest group theory is
one of pluralism.
• Society is seen as heterogeneous: the clashes that
occur are inevitable, and consensus and conflict guide
social interaction.
• Interest group theorists like the neo Marxists share the
focus on change.
33
Functionalist
• Emphasizes a community’s purpose or function
• How does the community work to attain its
purpose
• How does the function of a community (shared
common identity) impact the actions the
community takes? (farming, neighborhood
watch)
• Focuses on how the community has grown,
matured over time, how decisions are made
Social psychological
• How community members feel about
themselves, their community, and how they
interact with each other
• See members bound together for psychological
and social needs, sense of belonging.
• An important aspect is a sense of identity—
extent to which people feel they have similar
concerns, do people feel the community has a
sense of identity? how much they agree on the
operations of the community
• Social-psychological also involves
individuals’ sense of well-being within the
community.
• Do people feel protected and secure?
• Are other people viewed as friends or
foes?
Social psychological
• Also emphasizes the attitudes, norms,
customs and behaviors of people
• What behaviors and attitudes are
considered appropriate?
Social systems
• Emphasizes how subsystems interact with each
other
• Social units in a community include schools,
health organizations, social welfare
organizations, religious institutions, economic,
political
• Focus on the interaction of the subsystems on a
horizontal level within the community and the
vertical extracommunity level.
• What inputs does the community have in
terms of resources to clients and other
citizens?
• How effectively does the community
process the inputs?
• Are sections of the community progressing
toward disorganziation or entropy?
• How well do social institutions relate to
one another in the community?
• How well do they provide social functions
for individuals and the community?
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