Introduction to Community and Social Development

• You cannot understand the life of an individual or the history of society without understanding both.
• Sociological Imagination allows us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society.
• Public Issues - have to do with the matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life.
• Personal Troubles - occur within the character of the individual and within his range of his immediate relations with others. It has to do with his self and with those areas of social life in which he is directly and personally aware.
• Society = Economic base (Infrastructure) and Superstructures
• Economic base: Sum total of the relations and forces of production
• Superstructure, composed of:

  1. Political Institution: National government, armed forces, laws.

  2. Cultural (Ideology) Institution: Corresponding philosophies, ideas, religions, arts and culture.
• Pre-capitalist modes of production a. Primitive communal

  b. Slave society

  c. Feudal society
• Modes of production in history 1. Pre-capitalist modes of production:

  2. Capitalist mode of production

  3. Socialist mode of production
• Economic Relation – the start of all kinds of relation including production, survival and etc.
• People need each other to survive and produce food.
• The root word for the word community is common.
• Two types of Community

  Community – people share common bond and reside within same area (geographic).

  Commodity – group of people who share common values, history and etc. (sectoral).
• Development is a positive change.
• the development should start in marginalized community.
• Development is not equal to Growth
• Growth - the Philippines has economic growth but there is no economic development.
• Development – desirable state and it is not all about new technology, modernization, productivity but responding to the needs of most needed.
• Concept that should be present in Development

  1. Responding to the needs of who’s needed mostly.

  2. Genuine participation in development – Participate from conceptualization to implementation. Be a participant, not a beneficiary. 3. Development should ensure the equality of men and women – Promotes women empowerment.
• Community Development

  • Process of transforming the marginalized people to act objectively and enabling them to define their direction.
• Community Development - Recognizing and building peoples innate potential and capabilities. We don’t bring development into the communities; it starts in the community. People should realize that development comes from them.
• Geographic communities - are composed of the people living in a definite territorialspace, and with a set of values and norms that govern the lives and relationships of theconstituents.
• Community Development Concept

  • is anchored on participatory development perspective. It deals

  with the growth and sustenance, conflict resolution, rehabilitation, and transformation of marginalized communities through people’s participation and collective actions in ensuring the holistic and corporate well-being of the people.
• What is Development?

  Thomas (2000)

  • A vision or measure of a desirable state of being for society

  • A historical process of social change in which societies are transformed over a long

  period, and

  • Deliberate efforts aimed at improvement on the part of various agencies (e.g.,governments, NGOs, social movements, etc. )
• Sociological Imagination - Motivated us to really understand society. It helps to see what do we need in the society in order to move forward.
• Poverty - definitely is the social context of development