Assignment 02 DVA2602
Assignment 02 09 September 2014
QUESTION
Analyse the debate around the concepts “community” and “community development”.
READING: Study guide, study unit 1 de Beer & Swanepoel, 1998: chapter 1
Community development: a reader, 2009: contributions by Cornwell (entitled
"Community development: a phoenix too frequent"); Brent; Shaw; Kumar.
Assessment evidence shows that you can:
• critically discuss the meaning of the concepts “community” and “community development”
• discuss some of the difficulties encountered when explaining these concepts
• provide a historical background of community development
• critically discuss how the meaning of these concepts has changed over time and how scholars influenced by different ideologies and disciplines have given diverse meanings to these concepts
• use evidence from the prescribed readings
Critically discuss the meaning of the concepts “community” and “community development”
Community
Geographers emphasise spatial aspects, economists emphasise work and markets and sociologists emphasise social interactions and networks in their definitions of community.
Community is also defined as people in a given geographical location, the word can really refer to any group sharing something in common. This may refer to smaller geographic areas -- a neighborhood, a housing project or development, a rural area -- or to a number of other possible communities within a larger, geographically-defined community. Examples of community:
The Catholic community (or faith community, a term used to refer to one or more congregations of a specific faith).
The arts community
The African American community
The education community
The business community
The homeless community
The gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community
The medical community
The Haitian community
The elderly community
Often when we think of community, we think in geographic terms. Our community is the city, town or village where we live. When community is defined through
QUESTION
Analyse the debate around the concepts “community” and “community development”.
READING: Study guide, study unit 1 de Beer & Swanepoel, 1998: chapter 1
Community development: a reader, 2009: contributions by Cornwell (entitled
"Community development: a phoenix too frequent"); Brent; Shaw; Kumar.
Assessment evidence shows that you can:
• critically discuss the meaning of the concepts “community” and “community development”
• discuss some of the difficulties encountered when explaining these concepts
• provide a historical background of community development
• critically discuss how the meaning of these concepts has changed over time and how scholars influenced by different ideologies and disciplines have given diverse meanings to these concepts
• use evidence from the prescribed readings
Critically discuss the meaning of the concepts “community” and “community development”
Community
Geographers emphasise spatial aspects, economists emphasise work and markets and sociologists emphasise social interactions and networks in their definitions of community.
Community is also defined as people in a given geographical location, the word can really refer to any group sharing something in common. This may refer to smaller geographic areas -- a neighborhood, a housing project or development, a rural area -- or to a number of other possible communities within a larger, geographically-defined community. Examples of community:
The Catholic community (or faith community, a term used to refer to one or more congregations of a specific faith).
The arts community
The African American community
The education community
The business community
The homeless community
The gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community
The medical community
The Haitian community
The elderly community
Often when we think of community, we think in geographic terms. Our community is the city, town or village where we live. When community is defined through
Bibliography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Community Tool Box website PeerNetBC website