Post Colonialism

Define: “former colonial powers continue their dominance of former colonies through hegemony, that is economic and cultural power” (Askeland & Payne, 2008) Apply: It is important for social workers in particular when they are traveling abroad to understand the colonial powers that were present in that country and to analyze how it continue to affects that country today. For example, it would be important for a social worker working in India to understand how British colonialism impacted India, economically, socially, religiously etc. Adapt: It would be interesting for Linguists to do research on how local dialects have changed over time from being colonized, after colonizers have left and so on. In particular, it is important to note that even post-colonially (British and U.S. colonies) English continues to be a standard second language globally. Askeland, G., & Payne, M. (2008). Globalization and International Social Work: Postmodern Change and Challenge. Farnham: England.

Postmodernism

Define: “rejects the dominance of rational, technical knowledge, in understanding the world, which underlies industrial societies. Therefore, it questions the influence of economies as a technical form of explanation. Instead it emphasizes how the local, societal and historical context influences or creates our understanding of the world” (Askeland & Payne, 2008) Apply: Postmodernism is increasingly being incorporated to social work education. Postmodernism calls into question whether social work methods and interventions are applicable to a wide variety of contexts. Likewise the flow of information must allow for knowledge from other contexts around the world to inform social work practice in the United States. Adapt: Postmodernism in fast food. McDonalds practices post-modernism in the sense that in addition to its standard hamburger menu it customizes items according to the local cusine and context, which is why you can find McArabia in Egypt. http://www.mcdonaldsegypt.com/loader.html Askeland, G., & Payne, M. (2008). Globalization and International Social Work: Postmodern Change and Challenge. Farnham: England.

Globalization

Define: Globalization, “refers to the acceleration of capitalism’s global reach by the most powerful systems in the West, exploiting the most vulnerable people and environments in the world for economic gain, and invading other cultures with a western worldview which reproduces discrimination on a complex global level” (Ledwith,2005) Apply: Social workers and community developers/organizers need to be aware of globalization as it pertains to local issues. With the increase in technology there have been mobilization across global issues in local areas, an example is the mobilization for immigrant rights which is a transnational/global issue which has manifested itself in local xenophobia and local movements of solidarity for immigrant rights. Adapt: The ways in which Globalization has had a negative impact on developing countries is that manufacturers often will relocate outside of the United States and Europe in order to take advantage of other countries with little to no regulations in terms of labor or the environment. Ledwith, M. (2005). Community Development. Portland: Policy Press.

Neo Liberalism

Define: Neo-Liberalism: “refers to a free market non-interventionist state which emphasis the individual, and justifies the deregulation of trade and finance” (Ledwith, 2005) Apply: A trend in applying neo-liberalism to social work is the development of social enterprises. Rather than solve social problems through other interventions, social entrepreneurs use the marketplace to solve social problems. An example is Vision Spring which is company that employs women in developing countries to sell eye glasses to those who lack access to such products like in remote villages, rural areas, etc. Adapt: Neo-Liberalism is actually a theory that has been borrowed to use in social work and community development. In its political context, Neo-liberalism has been designed to give more freedom to corporations, businesses, and entrepreneurs. It has had negative ramifications as well with the introduction of welfare to work programs and has encouraged privatization of what used to be government responsibilities i.e., privatization of social security. Ledwith, M. (2005). Community Development. Portland: Policy Press.

Radical Community Development

Define: Radical Community Development, “is committed to the role of community work in achieving transformative change for social and environmental justice, and develops analysis and practice which move beyond symptoms to the root causes of oppression” (Ledwith, 2005) Apply: If multiple people in the community cannot buy houses because of discriminatory practices with lenders, they can establish their own Credit Union where neighbor can lend to neighbor ending dependence on the discriminatory lender. Adapt: Nurses in a community are aware of rising population of teenage mothers in their community instead of addressing only the symptoms of the problem, the nurses decide to create a sex education community program to teach not only teenagers about safe sex but also their parents and teachers. Ledwith, M. (2005). Community Development. Portland: Policy Press.

Social Infrastructure

Definition: Social infrastructure influences the development of community by means of the availability of quality healthcare, the safety of investment, the quality of the school system, the parks, recreational, and cultural opportunities, the availability, affordability, and quality of housing, and having a quality college/university nearby. (Phillips and Pittman, p. 140-142) Apply: The social infrastructure of a community can provide crucial information about the strengths and weaknesses of a community, the resources which community members are likely to place importance on, as well as the settings in which community members are most likely to congregate. For example, if a community has a variety of interesting recreational and cultural opportunities which members enjoy participating in, but the quality of the school system in the neighborhood is sub-par and offers few extra-curricular opportunities, it is probable that community members (particularly youth) may value the cultural opportunities and events available to them outside of school and may invest less energy and time into school as a result. Adapt: The social infrastructure of an academic community, specifically a higher education community such as the University of Michigan, can also play an important role in assessing the factors that are most pertinent to the academic community, particularly the students who inhabit that community. The quality of the university, the quality of housing, the quality of healthcare, the affordability of living in the area, and the parks, recreational, and cultural opportunities available to members of an academic community affects the degree to which students connect and invest in their academic community and in turn the degree to which a strong sense of community within the academic environment can develop.

Learning Theory

Definition: The learning theory is defined as bringing people together through different means such as cognitive, emotional, and environmental by doing so you can influence others' knowledge, skills, values and ethics. This is important in community development to understand how individuals learn and understand the complexities of different learning styles, and find solutions to practical problems.

Apply: The learning theory can be applied in the educational system to understand how students can best learn and apply different styles of teaching to insure that each student receives the quality of education they deserve. Having different styles of learning also depends on the students background, where they come from and what community they are a part of. These factors have to be considered by the instructor in order to decide what teaching techniques are needed.

Adopt: The learning theory can be adoptive in diverse communities, for example we find that in China Town, Korea Town there are afterschool programs for children to learn more about their language of origin or their culture and to continue their traditions since the have a different style of learning and teaching and wish to continue this system to the newer generations to not forget where they each come from.

SWOT Analysis

Definition: SWOT analysis is a method traditionally used in the business realm for identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats impacting commercial ventures. The SWOT analysis provides a systematic approach for analyzing options, prioritizing actions, making decisions, and focusing efforts for the greatest impact. Strengths and weaknesses assess the internal and direct factors impacting a community, while opportunities and threats assess the factors that lie outside of the control of the community and local leaders but that can impact community development efforts. (Phillips and Pittman, p. 149-150) Apply: SWOT analysis can be used by community organizers and developers to assess the situation of a community in order to make informed decisions and prioritize actions with respect to community development. The SWOT analysis allows for the assessment of the internal strengths and weaknesses of a community with respect to physical infrastructure, social infrastructure, economic development infrastructure, and human infrastructure (as defined by Phillips and Pittman). Additionally, the SWOT analysis assesses external opportunities and threats, such as businesses in the area that may provide job opportunities or housing developments which may threaten to raise property taxes in the neighborhood. A SWOT analysis can therefore help community developers to determine the strengths on which to build, the weaknesses to avoid or overcome, and the external positive and negative factors that may enable or impede community development efforts. Adapt: SWOT analysis can be used in international humanitarian work to assess the location of particular countries with respect to their ability to receive humanitarian aid. The strengths and weaknesses would identify the ability or inability of an organization to provide humanitarian assistance to a particular country (i.e. staff who are familiar with the country and can speak the language, donors and other funding opportunities (or lack thereof)). The opportunities and threats portion of the analysis would assess the external possibilities or barriers to providing humanitarian assistance to the country (i.e. geographic location, ports of entry, ease or difficulty of getting shipments through customs, etc).

Cultural Theory

Definition: Cultural Theory was apply to understand the dynamics of culture in different environments. This is a stage that everyone will have to face since culture is part of society, since there are many components to culture. This include the interplay between cultural tradition and cultural difference and diversity. Moreover, culture is seen as the primary adaptive mechanism of humans to adapt themselves in different environments. Culture is also divided into high culture, low culture.

Apply: Being able to apply a cultural theory lens allows to see what the needs common to all people are. It allows to pay attention to the whole and parts of an issue, evaluate the value systems of certain groups of people. It is also helpful to understand key variables of countries, blocs of countries and human beings and the natural environment.

Adapt: Cultural theory can be adoptive for example by many immigrant families that come to live in the US and leave everything behind. In order to adopt to the new environment they bring mechanisms to view the world as a holistic place. For example many communities will start to build community centers and shops that meet their needs, such as Mexican Town in Detroit. We also have the example of many immigrants that send remittances back to their country not only for economic needs but to continue on their culture and feel the belong in a holistic world.

Critical Race Theory

Definition: Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a movement that studies and attempts to transform the relationship between race and power by examining the role of race and racism within the foundations of modern culture. This theory emerged after the civil rights movement in an attempt to create a forum in which it was apply to the ethnic studies to insure that there was a critical view on race relations in the United States.

Apply: Critical Race Theory is now apply in many areas of study in the law discipline to insure that the civil rights movements continues to be uphold and valued. The responsibilities of these legal professional is to promote racial equality through the law. These laws can include the banning affirmative action such as prop. 209 in California, and Prop.2 here in the state of Michigan that no longer secures that a certain percentage of student of color are admitted to higher education.

Adapt: While CRT has been viewed mainly through the legal profession lens, it can also be adoptive in other disciplines. For example educators can use CRT to understand classroom dynamics, academic testing and curriculum bias. It can also be useful in the political field to understand voting patterns, and campaigns.

community Social Capacity

Community Social Capacity

Definition: According to Mattessich and Monsey (1997), community social capacity is “the extend to which members of a community can work together effectively”

Application: community social capacity could be use by community members to take initiative to meet communities need. In the video “Metropolitan Avenue” the residents were able to accomplish their goals through strong community social capacity.

Adaption: community social capacity theory could be applied to create factory workers coalition that could work together to keep the systems in shape so that the factory owners don’t take advantage of the workers. In the video “the honor of all” we saw how the chicken workers used their community social capacity to get their demand, of paid leave and health insurance, heard and taken care of.

Community Building theory

Community Building theory

Definition: According to Phillips and Pittman (2009), community building refers to activities pursued by a community in order to increase the social capacity of its members. In the words of Gardner (1993), community building involves “the practice of building connections among residents, and establishing positive patters of individual and community behavior based on mutual responsibility and ownership.”

Application: The idea of “time banks” is based on the same theory. Time banks connect community members through the common ground of helping each other, while helping themselves. As a results the community members building connections with each other at the same time establishing positive patters of community behavior based on mutual need and responsibility, while at the same time increasing the social capacity.

Adaption: Community building theory could be adopted by school teachers to empower its students and take ownership. For example, teachers could encourage students to connect with others to accomplish a class project by synthesizing each others strengths through planning, strategizing and contributing to produce a quality product that will give them pride to take ownership.

Social Learning Theory (Albert Bandura)

Definition: Social learning theory focuses on the learning that occurs within a social context. It considers that people learn from one another, including such concepts as observational learning, imitation, and modeling. Apply: When working within communities the organizers can learn how to work with community members by viewing how they interact together. Watching how the community members interact with each other can be a good educational tool for organizers. You can learn how the different citizens act and feel about a certain aspect or the community on a whole by observing their actions. Community organizers will then be able to develop concepts and methods to effectively work with everyone involved as a result of observing the people they will work with. Adapt: This theory can be used when working with youth. Children in school develop their thoughts and ideas from observing other students. Most students will act or dress a certain way when they see other students acting or dressing that certain way. Teachers should work with students to teach them to think on their own and encourage independent thinking. The teachers should also present positive role models for the students to take after since they develop their thoughts from observing the actions of others.

Selective Perception Theory

Definition: Selective perception describes how we categorize and interpret information in a way that favorites one category or interpretation over another. In other words selective perception is a form of bias because we interpret information in a way that is congruent with our existing values and beliefs. Psychologists believe this process occurs automatically. Apply: Community organizers should have open and unbiased opinions when working with people. Organizers will work with a wide array of people with different backgrounds and beliefs. Selective perception prevents people from seeing the truth about other people because of the labels we have already applied to them. We see only what we choose to, which can limit our ability to form complex and fulfilling friendships and relationships. In order to develop meaningful and professional relationships we must put our preconceived notions behind us in order to work together with people and citizens to improve the community. Adapt: One profession that deals with selective perception theory is the law field. Lawyers must deal with different clients and represent their clients to the best of their ability. In some cases they will have to represent clients that they may have biases toward or different beliefs. In order to represent these clients they must put their own thoughts and feelings behind them to represent the clients and present a bias free case. The more aware they become of this process and their own particular triggers, the better equipped they will be to handle situations differently.

Gardner Theory of Multiple Intelligence

Definition: The theory of multiple intelligences was proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983 to analyze and better describe the concept of intelligence. It states that individuals can possess compentencies in many areas, including, the linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, and natural. Apply: Community organizers can use this theory to visualize and verbally express ways to improve the community. Organizers can use the spatial means of learning in this theory to use their eyesight to view problems first hand in the community and see how to fix them. They can then use the linguistic aspect of this model to verbalize their ideas and concepts on how to improve the community. Adapt: Traditionally, schools have emphasized the development of logical intelligence and linguistic intelligence (mainly reading and writing). Gardner's theory argues that students will be better served by a broader vision of education, wherein teachers use different methodologies, exercises and activities to reach all students, not just those who excel at linguistic and logical intelligence. The theory suggest that students can learn using different activities and that teachers will be better served applying different techniques. Using different techniques to help students learn engages students through constrained but meaningful choices, and a sharp focus on enabling students to produce high-quality work.

Stakeholder Theory

Define: Stakeholder theory is built upon recognition of interdependence. It suggests that the corporation is constituted by the network of relationships which it is in with employees, customers, suppliers, communities, businesses and other groups who interact with and give meaning and definition to the corporation. Apply: Stakeholder theory seems to promote a more cooperative, caring type of relationship. Community Organizers should seek to make decisions that satisfy stakeholders, leading to situations where all parties involved in a relationship gain. Community organizers work with numerous stakeholders in different instances. All stakeholders should be addressed in some way so that all stakeholders or a majority of them will be happy with an outcome. Adapt: Health Care administrators make decisions that involve numerous stakeholders. Whether it be the patients, doctors, hospital staff or even the families of the patients the administrators should think about all the stakeholders involved. Stakeholder theory should force them to examine the effect of their decisions on others and make the best decision possible for all people involved.

Core Values Model

Theory Name: Core Values Model (Schuler 1996) Definition: A community is like an ecosystem or a human body - each part works together to make the organic whole work. Isolating portions will make the whole fail. The model is based on community participation and citizen action, and the core values presented by Schuler include: Education, Strong democracy, Health and well-being, Economic equity/sustainability, information and communication, and conviviality and culture. Ledwith, M. 2005 "Community Development: A critical Approach" 79-80 Application to community development: When trying to establish a TimeBank in a community, obviously you're going to need to recruit members. However, handing out flyers to inform/educate the members about the project is one step that cannot be the only one. The TimeBank will not succeed if you don't address other community-related issues as well. (are there community members will to keep the project going? are community members in well enough health to participate?) Ledwith says that "projects in the process of change should not be fragmented from the organic whole" (79). What's the long-term goal? While you have to break down the goal into smaller, do-able portions, do not lose sight of the long term goal.

Adaptation to outside field: In the field of public health, when you want to address a particular health outcome, trying to address only one part of the problem (individual behavior, for example) will usually cause to you to fail in the long run, unless you acknowledge and address other factors as well: policies, power, sustainability, current barriers, etc.

Developmental Approach

Define: this model emphasizes the need to “expand human potential or add to the quality of life, rather than to correct a problem or overcome deficiency” (Homan, 2008, p. 62). Consequently, this approach is solution-focused, as it seeks to foster positive conditions for growth on a micro, mezzo, and macro level.

Apply: The tendency for many organizers and workers is to analyze the problem and concerns found within the community. This is evident as many initial surveys focus on the problems or concerns of residents or what they lack. More frequently, a needs assessment is conducted within the community in an effort to collect statistics regarding the identified problems of the residents. However, from a developmental approach, instead of a problem-solving approach, community organizers would survey residents’ thoughts concerning possible solutions, strengths, and capabilities of individuals within the community. Therefore, the aim of the organizer would be to foster growth within the community after recognizing the assets of the community. Thus, if 40% of the population within the community have obtained a degree in business, it may be helpful to provide education and workshops to other members within the community if they are interested in entrepreneurship. This is a proactive and preventative approach when dealing with communities, rather than reacting to problems or lack of resources.

Adapt: Many scholastic programs also use a developmental approach as they seek to cultivate the personal growth of individuals. A large majority of scholastic programs that work with minorities and other oppressed groups tend to be reactive in their approach, but programs that are developmental seek to nurture and identify the capabilities of youth as well as provide them with an opportunity to demonstrate their gifts. For example, a performing arts curriculum may be formed within a scholastic program for children who sing, dance, and act. Therefore, these programs create opportunities that will develop or enhance the strengths found within youth so that they are able to achieve their personal goals

Social Action Model

Define: this theory asserts that “there is a disadvantaged (often oppressed) segment of the population that needs to be organized” (Zastrow, 2006, p. 298). Therefore, social justice needs to be employed in order to assist the community system in challenging the power structure.

Apply: communities may experience various sources of oppression; in which case, it is role of the worker to function as an activist, ado vacate, or broker in order to determine the appropriate services or intervention. It is important to understand what the community needs, rather than what leaders promote as their agenda. Communities are in various stages, and may need different strategies in order to best assist the community. For instance, after being involved with TimeBanks in Southwest Detroit, I have often wondered if this is what the Southwest Detroit community at large needs or wants? Maybe members in the community may find that they their concerns are not heard, and thus social justice may be more effective than trying to build a unified community. This may be significant as hearing the community’s concerns and mobilizing them into action may result in building community interaction.

Adapt: This is also evident when working with abused clients on an interpersonal level (micro), such as counseling. A worker’s first notion may be to begin counseling or discuss personal information pertaining to the client’s presenting problem and history, rather than ensuring that the client has had his or her basic needs met, such as safety, shelter, food, or clothing. Therefore, case management services are more likely to be necessary first, instead of intervention. Case managers will act as an advocate and broker services for the client relating to their basic needs to ensure that her or his holistic needs are met.

Locality Development Model

Define: the model of locality development “asserts that community change can best be brought about through broad participation of a wide spectrum of spectrum of people at the local community level” (Zastrow, 2006, p.299). This theory surmises that change efforts on the community level are most achievable with the cooperation of the local citizens, as they should be involved in the problem-solving process.

Apply: In community development, the practitioner’s role is to be that of a catalyst within the change effort due to the fact that residents and citizens are responsible for the contribution of various ideas in the problem-solving process. This is evident as many organizers are challenged in allowing the community members complete objectives, as they could readily be accomplished by the organizer. However, there is a blatant necessity in this model for organizers to encourage community participation, because residents should be responsible for obtaining, maintaining, or securing their own interest, rather than the organizer. In doing so, the outcome is greater cohesiveness, pride, confidence, and problem-solving capabilities within the community.

Adapt: The basis of this theory is that individuals are stronger together than they are separately, and therefore collectively they may be able to resolve issues and challenges. Educators have used this philosophy within the school setting, and it is known as tribes. Children of varying ages (5 to 13) come together and collaborate as well as problem-solve on various projects, rather than seeking individual attention regarding issues. The students learn how to rely upon the strengths of each other to accomplish goals, assignments, or tasks. They look to each other rather than the teacher to provide the solution. Moreover, the role of the teacher is to be a facilitator or a catalyst in that they motivate and encourage the children to rely upon their tribe to resolve issues, conflicts, questions, and academic assignments. This has been beneficial to their learning community as students are encourage to be interdependent, as they realize the steps necessary to rectify challenges.