Module on Community Engagement Solidarity and Citizenships

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 Module on Community Engagement Solidarity and Citizenships

WHAT IS THIS MODULE ALL ABOUT?

This module serves as a learning resource material in understanding the target expected in the
curriculum.

TOPIC:

CONCEPTS AND PERSPECTIVES OF COMMUNITY

Importance of understanding community dynamics and community action

Content Standard:

The learners demonstrate an understanding of the integration of social science

perspective and community action.

Learning Competency:

 The learners will...

Explain the importance of studying community dynamics and community action in relation to
applied social sciences and the learners’ future career options. (HUMSS_CSC12-IIIa-c-1)

 The learners will...

Compare and contrast the definitions of community using various perspectives, e.g., social
sciences, institutions, civil society, and local/grassroots level.
(HUMSS_CSC12-IIIa-c-2)

Pretest

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Direction: Read the questions or statements and write your answer.

1. Which is not a characteristic of a community?
a. Living in the same area c. Fighting each other
b. Sharing Ideas d. Tacking each other
2. Why bees and ants are like a community?
a. The live and work together. c. They have a leader
b. They are insects. d. They fight.
3. What is common among all communities?
a. Has someone to lead c. Always indulge in war
b. Existence of crime d. Creation of religion
4. What perspective of community be defined by describing the social and political networks that
link individuals, community organizations, and leaders.
a. Social b. virtual c. individual d. system
5. What perspective of community states that individuals have their own sense of community
membership?
a. social b. virtual c. individual d. system
6. This perspective of community explained the existence of social groups on the internet?
a. Social b. virtual c. individual d. system
7. These are communities in the most traditional sense. Members share relationships with physical
structures in the geographic region, such as a river or mountain.
a. Geographic communities c. Communities of interest
b. Virtual communities d. international communities
8. Defined as groups of people who interact via communication media rather than face-to-face.
a. Geographic communities c. Communities of interest
b. Virtual communities d. international communities
9. Which is not a characteristic of a community based on the different authors?
a. A grouping of people.
b. A common culture and a social system which organizes their activities.
c. Act collectively in an organized manner.
d. The group of animals of high intelligence.
10. Smaller groups within geographic communities.
a. Geographic communities c. Communities of interest
b. Virtual communities d. international communities

Let us see if know something about your Community

What are the languages in our municipality?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Our municipality is consisting of how many barangays and what are those?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

What are the changes in your community? Compare year 2010 to year 2020.

Year 2010 Year 2020

Process Questions:

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 Module on Community Engagement Solidarity and Citizenships

1. What are the factors that brought these changes?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY : SOCIAL SCIENCE CONCEPT– Social science is an umbrella term for the various
fields of study which examine social relations andhuman society.– Basically, from social science
perspective, a community is described as a group of people in a particulararea interacting together.–
Social science has several fields, including Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Psychology, and
Sociology.-Social science views community as composed of people interacting with one another,
sensitive to eachother’s emotions, as well as interests and subjective points of view.

COMMUNITY: INSTITUTIONAL CONCEPT– The institutional perspective views the concept of

community in three different dimensions.
–First. it is an existing establishment or physical space where members of the community go for a certain
purpose. •Examples of this are companies, hospitals, or educational institutions.

–Second, is the institutional community as a social model.– This is defined by networks and institutions
where community groups are formed in certain areas such as schools, churches or companies, and
members gather to meet their needs.– People join clubs and associations to hone their skills, join religious
organizations to deepen their faith, participate in media activities to improve their communication skills,
and meet with friends and family at restaurants to satisfy their hunger.– Some of the religious
organizations based in the Philippines are the Catholic Church, the Agama Islam Society, Couples for
Christ, and Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan.

– Third, is that community is composed of the ways people

act, interact with each other, react, and expect each other to
act and interact.– Examples include institutions such as
marriage or friendship, roles such as mother, police officer,
status or class, and other patterns of human behavior.– This
dimension presents how people act in relation to each other,
it includes their expectations, assumptions, judgements,
predictions and reactions.– It perceives patterns of
relationships sometimes identified as roles and status, and the
formation of groups and institutions that derive from those
patterns.

The social or institutional dimension of community is composed of the ways people act, interact between
each other, react, and expect each other to act and interact. It includes such institutions as marriage or
friendship, roles such as mother or police officer, status or class, and other patterns of human behavior.

The term community has been defined from different perspectives based on researches in various fields.

These fields include anthropology, sociology, and political science. Primarily, the understanding of community is
linked with the notion of neighborhood or village, where interpersonal ties are considered locally bound. Communities
could either be referred to as territorial, a network of interrelationships within a common interest, or as shared
spiritual/emotional connectedness.

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What Is Community?

---- In the classic sense, community is defined as a group of members who live in a certain locality and
interact with one another while sharing common interests or goals.

A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such

as norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a
given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or neighborhood) or in virtual space through
communication platforms.

According to Bogardus (Sociology, 1952), “a community is a social group with some degree of we
feeling and living in a given area”. Similarly, Eshleman and Cashion (Sociology, 1983) defined it as “a
collection of people within a geographic area among whom there is some degree of mutual identification,
interdependence or organisation of activities”. For Dotson (1991), “a community is a spatial or
territorial unit of social organisation in which people have a sense of identity and a feeling of
belonging”.
The concept of community has
Let’s answer this: expanded over the last several
What composed the community? decades, and three main types of
_______________________________________________________ communities are generally
What is the basic unit of the community? identified. These are geographic
__________________________________________________ communities, communities of
_____ interest and virtual communities.

According to the Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition, the word

"communities" has been used in the English language since the 14th
century to refer to groups of people within a district who share
characteristics and a sense of identity.

Geographic communities--- are those in which members share the same physical space. These are
communities in the most traditional sense. Members share relationships with physical structures in the
geographic region, such as a river or mountain.
Communities of interest---- are smaller groups within geographic communities. They consist of people
who are united by a certain belief or goal. For example, all of the runners in a certain city can be referred
to as that city's "running community."
Virtual communities----- are defined as groups of people who interact via communication media rather
than face-to-face.

Perspective of Community
Systems Perspective
From a systems perspective, a community is similar to a living creature, comprising different parts that
represent specialized functions, activities, or interests, each operating within specific boundaries to meet
community needs. For example, schools focus on education, the transportation sector focuses on moving
people and products, economic entities focus on enterprise and employment, faith organizations focus on
the spiritual and physical well-being of people, and health care agencies focus on the prevention and
treatment of diseases and injuries (Henry, 2011).

Social Perspective
A community can also be defined by describing the social and political networks that link individuals,
community organizations, and leaders. Understanding these networks is critical to planning efforts in
engagement. For example, tracing social ties among individuals may help engagement leaders to identify
a community’s leadership, understand its behavior patterns, identify its high-risk groups, and strengthen
its networks (Minkler et al., 1997). 

Virtual Perspective

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Some communities map onto geographically defined areas, but today, individuals rely more and more on
computer-mediated communications to access information, meet people, and make decisions that affect
their lives (Kozinets, 2002). Examples of computer-mediated forms of communication include email,
instant or text messaging, e-chat rooms, and social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and
Twitter (Flavian et al., 2005). Social groups or groups with a common interest that interact in an
organized fashion on the Internet are considered “virtual communities” (Rheingold, 2000; Ridings et al.,
2002). Without question, these virtual communities are potential partners for community-engaged health
promotion and research.  

Individual Perspective
Individuals have their own sense of community membership that is beyond the definitions of community
applied by researchers and engagement leaders. Moreover, they may have a sense of belonging to more
than one community. In addition, their sense of membership can change over time and may affect their
participation in community activities (Minkler et al., 2004).

Summarized ideas of different writers about the characteristics of community:

(1) A grouping of people.
(2) A delimited geographical area or locality (not much applicable to modem communities).
(3) A common culture and a social system which organizes their activities.
(4) Consciousness among the members about their unity and a sense of belongingness (we-feeling).
(5) Act collectively in an organized manner.
(6) A division of labor into specialized and interdependent functions.

Let us try how far your understandings by connecting you pass learnings
1. What is the importance of the different branches of Social Science to the study of Community?

Anthropology:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

Sociology:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

Demography:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

2. Which perspective of the community that refers to the public and private institution?
______________________________
3. Which refers to a collection of people in a geographical area?
______________________________
4. Which refers to the study of human society?
________________________________

WHAT IS COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT?

……..“the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by
geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the well-being of
those people. It is a powerful vehicle for bringing about environmental and behavioral changes that will
improve the health of the community and its members. It often involves partnerships and coalitions that
help mobilize resources and influence systems, change relationships among partners, and serve as
catalysts for changing policies, programs, and practices (CDC, 1997, p. 9).”

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Community engagement can take many forms, and partners can include organized groups,
agencies, institutions, or individuals. Collaborators may be engaged in health promotion, research, or
policy making. In the context of engagement, “community” has been understood in two ways: It is
sometimes used to refer to those who are affected by the health issues being addressed. This use
recognizes that the community as defined in this way has historically been left out of health improvement
efforts even though it is supposed to be the beneficiary of those efforts.

In practice, community engagement is a blend of science and art. The science comes from
sociology, political science, cultural anthropology, organizational development, psychology, social work,
and other disciplines, and organizing concepts are drawn from the literature on community participation,
community mobilization, constituency building, community psychology, and cultural influences.

The art comes from the understanding, skill, and sensitivity used to apply and adapt the science in
ways that fit the community of interest and the purposes of specific engagement efforts. The results of
these efforts may be defined differently and can encompass a broad range of structures (coalitions,
partnerships, collaborations), but they all fall under the general rubric of community engagement and are
treated similarly in this primer.

Over time, a specific collaboration is likely to move along this continuum toward greater
community involvement, and any given collaboration is likely to evolve in other ways, too Most notably,
while community engagement may be achieved during a time-limited project, it frequently involves and
often evolves into long-term partnerships that move from the traditional focus on a single health issue to
address a range of social, economic, political, and environmental factors that affect health

Let’s see what you have learned

Explain in a briefly but substantially.
1. Choose one and explain.
a. The community as a “sociological construct”.
b. Communities within communities.
c. Community as a cultural concept.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

2. Why Practice Community Engagement?

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

3. How does a Social role affect the development of community?

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

4. How does status or class affect the community?

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Sources:

https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/communityengagement/pce_concepts.html

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https://www.scribd.com/presentation/364360238/community-Engagement-Solidarity-and-Citizenship
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/community-definitions-bases-and-changing-concept-of-
community/35065

POST TEST
1. Which is not a characteristic of a community?
a. Living in the same area c. fighting each other
b. Sharing Ideas d. Tacking each other
2. Why bees and ants are like a community?
a. The live and work together. c. They have a leader
b. They are insects. d. They fight.
3. What is common among all communities?
a. Has someone to lead c. always indulge in war
b. Existence of crime d. Creation of religion
4. What perspective of community be defined by describing the social and political networks that
link individuals, community organizations, and leaders.
a. Social b. virtual c. individual d. system
5. What perspective of community states that individuals have their own sense of community
membership?
a. social b. virtual c. individual d. system
6. This perspective of community explained the existence of social groups on the internet?
a. Social b. virtual c. individual d. system
7. These are communities in the most traditional sense. Members share relationships with physical
structures in the geographic region, such as a river or mountain.
a. Geographic communities’ c. Communities of interest
b. Virtual communities’ d. international communities
8. Defined as groups of people who interact via communication media rather than face-to-face.
a. Geographic communities’ c. Communities of interest
b. Virtual communities’ d. international communities
9. Which is not a characteristic of a community based on the different authors?
a. A grouping of people.
b. A common culture and a social system which organizes their activities.
c. Act collectively in an organized manner.
d. The group of animals of high intelligence.
10. Smaller groups within geographic communities.
A. Geographic communities’ c. Communities of interest
b. Virtual communities’ d. international communities

ANSWER KEY

1 C
2 C
3 A
4 A
5 C
6 B
7 A
8 B
9 D
10 C

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Process Question/s:

1. What are the factors that brought these changes?

Learners’ expected response:

• Leadership

• Technology

• Economic Advancement