Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION IV-A CALABARZON
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF BACOOR CITY
SHS IN SAN NICHOLAS III, BACOOR CITY
San Nicolas III, City of Bacoor, Cavite

Name: Date
Grade/Section Teacher
Subject Community Engagement, Solidarity What I need to Know
and Citizenship Module No. 3 Structures, Dynamics,
and Process of the
Community

To further understand the concept of community, its structure, dynamics, and process must be
examined and clearly understood. Structure refers to the attributes and characteristics of the
relationships of the component parts of the community. Examining dynamics, investigates the
exchanges, interactions, and changes in the community across time, and lastly the processes in the
community helps understand the community power relations, leadership, and social change.

Objective:

- analyze functions of communities in terms of structures, dynamics, and processes HUMSS_CSC12-

IIIa-c-5

At the end of this lesson, the students must be able to:

1. Identify the different components that builds the structure of the community; 2. Understand
the interactions within the community and the changes of leadership; and 3. Appraise the
importance of understanding the structure, dynamics, and process of the community in
community action.

What I Know

Multiple choice: Read each question carefully and choose the best answer to the question.
 1. What dimension in the structure of the community analyzes the allocation, production, and
distribution of scarce resources to address the wants and needs of the members of the
community?
a. Socio- political dimension.
b. Geographic dimension.
c. Economic Dimension.
d. Cultural Dimension.

2. Why is studying the cultural dimension in the structure of the community important for
community action?
a. It understands the exchange of resources in the community.
b. It helps in characterizing the relationship between stratified groups.
c. It analyzes the limits of the territory, distribution of the population, and the location of
resources in the community.
d. It provides an understanding of how culture affects members of a community and how it
relates to community dynamics and process.

3. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of an Informal power structure?

a. It exists alongside formal- institutional power structure.
b. It is legal- authoritative basis of elected and appointed leaders.
c. It refers to the ability to lead, direct or achieve without an official leadership title d. It is harder
to empirically identify but is equally significant factor in a community’s development.

4. What occurs when there is opposing and contradicting forces within a community leading to the
alteration of its condition and structural dimensions.
a. Leadership.
b. Power shift.
c. Social change.
d. Dynamic shift.

5. Why do you think it is important to study community structure, dynamics, and process in relation
to community engagement?
a. It helps understanding the typically multi- dimensional community issues and problems. b. The
challenges in the community can be analyzed through the interrelated dimensions of the
community.
c. Leadership and power structure can be known to properly execute community engagement
with the right assistance within the community.
d. All the above.

What’s in

How well do you know your community?

 Throughout your life, you have been surrounded by different people, institutions, and others. By
now, you have a basic understanding of how the different parts and aspects of your community works. In
this activity, try to draw a structure map of your community and draw arrows on how each part relates
to one another.

Important parts to consider in the structure map:

1. The place of power, leadership, and politics. (Where is the community leader/ elected official
located and where councils are held?)
2. The place of resource and trade. (Where do you get your essential resources? and where do you
exchange this resource?)
3. The members of the community (What is the population dynamics? How many people in your
estimate? What is the distribution of the members?)

What’s New

In the recently drawn structural map of your community. Give at least three different
interactions within the parts of your community and describe
 1.) How the interactions affect and sustains the community? And
2.) How can it help in community engagement and community action?

What is it

Directions: Read and understand the following concepts. Be able to answer the succeeding tasks .

Structural Dimensions of the Community

There are four structural dimensions that lend insight in understanding the dynamics and
development of a community. These are geographic, socio-political, economic, and cultural dimensions.

Geographic Dimension

This dimension focuses on how a community is shaped by the physical space and features it uses,
and the location of its resources (human, natural, and technological).

Each community has a specific end unique geographic system where interactions between and
among its inhabitants occur. Institutions regulate these spaces as legal jurisdictions. Goods and
information also circulate within geographic systems. It also has a political- administrative character,
since geographic systems are characterized by zones and boundaries that are either natural or defined
by the rules of the community. An examination of a community's geographic system would typically
start by looking at the scope and limits of its territory, distribution of its population, and the location of
the resources.

Socio-political Dimension

Social political dimension there first see the relationships of power and control between
individuals and groups in the community. What you got Political leadership, whether formal or informal,
and how it is accepted and sustained by community members are important factors that help analyze
the quality and processes of decision-making in the community. Accountability, legitimacy, and
participation are critical issues related to political leadership. Knowing the social political system of
communities also helps in characterizing the relationship between stratified groups and they extended
their dominance of marginalization.
Economic Dimension

Economic dimension refers to how members of the community allocate, produce, and distribute
scarce resources to address their wants and needs. It is the aspect of community that is concerned with
how exchange value is created and what systems of exchange occurs within a community.

Cultural Dimension

In its brother sense, culture refers to the people’s way of life. It encompasses the values and
beliefs that are passed on from one generation to the other. It embodies the collective sense of a people
and what matters to them as a community, such as their relationships, memories, experiences,
backgrounds, hopes, and dreams, amidst their individual diversity's. More importantly, the culture of
community expresses their visions of the future and what they intend to pass to the next generation. A
study into the cultural dimension of communities provide an understanding of how culture affects
members of the community and how this relates to community dynamics and processes.
Community issues and problems are typically multi-dimensional. This means that the challenges
community space can be analyzed through a combination of interrelated dimensions mentioned above.

Community Dynamics and Processes

The dominant analytical approaches in studying community dynamics and processes focus on
community power relations, leadership, and social change.

There are two kinds of power structures in the community: formal and informal. The formal
power structure forms the legal-authoritative basis of elected and appointed government officials and
leaders of civic organizations. Informal power structure, on the other hand, exists alongside the formal
dash institutional power structure; it is harder to empirically identify, but is equally significant factor in a
community's development.
In examining power relations within the community, it is necessary to investigate the critical
actors, stakeholders, and the resources they control. These actors can broadly be distinguished as legal
authoritative decision makers and influencers.

Legal-authoritative decision- makers are individuals or bodies authority is based on formal rules
and institutions. City mayors, legislative council members, and barangay captains are examples of legal
authoritative decision- makers in Philippine communities. Typically, legal-authoritative decision-makers
occupy positions of authority through legally mandated processes like elections or group formal political
appointments.

Influencers, On the other hand, or individuals or groups who do not have their rank authority
but are capable of shaping decisions that affect the community. Influencers can propose, pressure, and
affect decisions made by legal-authoritative decision-makers according to their interests or agenda.
Analyzing community power relations can also include an examination of the positional arrangements of
actors and groups based on the resources that they control or process, the extent of their reputation,
and their degree of social participation.
Leadership

In the context of a community, leadership refers to the process and qualities of a command and
decisiveness regarding the necessary actions that ensured the welfare of the community. Community
leaders are individual selected, nominated, and appointed as keywords, vanguards, in champions of
issues relevant to a community. These individuals demonstrate skills, capacities, and attitudes that are
critically in steering the community so are their goals and aspirations, community leaders occupy
positions of high reputation and authority within the community. as such, community leaders occupy
important positions in the hierarchy of power within the community. Community leaders can mobilize
capacities to influence critical actors and local partners in solving problems that confronts a community.

Social Change

Social change can occur for several reasons. It can be due to the opposing and contradicting
forces within the community leading to the operation of this condition and structural dimensions. It may
encompass a range of social civic outcomes, such as the increased understanding of the community,
attitudinal change, changes in the configuration of civic participation, the building of public trust, or
changes in the policy that redistributes the communities material resources. Social change is indicated in
the changes and shifts in the attributes and characteristics of groups within the community such as their
demographic character, their control of resources and wealth, or their attitudes and outlooks.

In the community, social change may be observed when there is a significant observable
difference between past and current conditions in community life. Social change is said to occur, for
instance, when there is an observable rising sedition and literacy in the community.

What’s more

Directions: Using your own community, identify the four structural dimensions of a community- namely
geographic, socio-political, economic, and cultural dimensions. Write your answers in each of the box
provided.

Geographical Socio- political Economic Cultural

What have I learned

- Structural dimensions are the attributes and characteristics of the relations of the components part
of the communities. There are different structural dimensions in the community. These four
structural dimensions are geographic, socio- political, economic, and cultural.
- Geographic dimensions are the physical aspects and features of the community (territorial bounds,
population distribution, and resource location).
 - Socio- political dimensions refers to the relationship and control between individuals and groups in
a community.
- Economic dimensions focus on the allocation, production, and distribution of scarce resources to
address the wants and needs of the members of the community.
- Cultural dimension provides understanding of the effects of culture in the community. This also
looks on how culture can affect the members of the community.
- Different power structures can be seen in the community. Specifically, formal power structure and
informal power structure is observed in the community.
- Formal power structures are formed by the legal- authoritative decision- makers, these are elected
and appointed leaders and individuals. This is based on formal rules and institutions. - Informal
power structures are composed of influencers and community leaders. They may not
have direct authority, but they can help in changing the power structure imposed by the formal
power structure.
- Understanding the structure, dynamics, and processes of the community can help in community
action and community engagement. With the following, problems, process, and the flow of
action can be properly addressed towards the goal of the community action.

Application

Task 1:

Based on the four structural dimensions that you have provided above, describe the interactions
and processes that happens in each of the four dimensions (give at least three interactions).

Task 2:

Using your own community, identify the people involved in the two (2) power structure (formal
and informal) in your community. Give at least three responsibilities and/or actions that the following
people have done for the community.

Formal Power Structure Informal Power Structure

 
Assessment

A. Identify the different structural dimensions, and dynamics and process mentioned below.

1. Community in the indigenous are have a long tradition of using alternative medicines and
rituals in addressing medical issues. The NGO is aiming to help to address illness and disease
in the area that is not resolved by the traditional medicines.

2. A relief operation is done by a student’s organization to a community that is struck by a local

house fire. The relief goods are packed in the local school and distributed in the covered
court.

3. Mr. dela Cruz is the elected barangay captain of Brgy. Malaya. He is contacted by a
corporation to provided free flu vaccines for the members of the community.

B. Give at least two importance if studying the different structural dimensions, dynamics, and
process of the community in community engagement, and community action.

Situation: Feeding program by an organization for the malnourished individual.

1. _
 2.

Reference:

Taguibao, J. & De Guzman, F.R. (2016). Community Engagement, Solidarity, and Citizenship. Vibal Group
Inc. Quezon City. pgs. 13- 16.

Answer key:

What I know:

1. C
2. D
3. B
4. C
5. D