Module 1

The Importance of Studying Community Dynamics and

Lesson 1 Community Action in Relation to Applied Social Sciences and the
Learner’s Future Career Options

Discover

It is said that the only time that we realize who and what we are is when we have immersed
ourselves within the community, that we would not discover our essential us unless we mingle with other
people. So, what is this community? What are its peculiarities and how are these connected to our chosen
future careers and what could be their relationship to applied social sciences?

Nature of Community
According to Kathleen M. MacQueen et.al, (2001, American Journal of Public Health), a
community is a “group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social ties, share common
perspectives, and engage in joint action in geographical locations or settings.” Add to this the definition
given by the Business Dictionary which states that a community is a “self-organized network of people with
common agenda, cause, or interest, who collaborate by sharing ideas, information, and other resources.”
Lastly, Chavis and Lee (2015) wrote that a community is both a feeling and a set of relationships among
people.

If we are to sum it up, a community refers to the people who live and coexist with each other and
who share a lot of things in common. Despite the fact that these people possess characteristics different
from each other, there could be a meeting of minds at certain points like their ideas over matters involving
their coexistence, about their cultural perspectives or regarding their established relationships, or the like.
And these people have built relationships anchored from trust, love, and sense of belongingness,
compassion and responsibility.

There is but one thing trivial about communities and this concerns the territorial or geographical
setting. Not in all instances do the people who comprise a community live close to each other, because in
some scenarios there could be people who live miles away from each other but they still consider
themselves as belonging to one and the same community. (More discussion about this in the succeeding
learning materials.)

Before we shall take the other integrative concepts of community, let us summarize the peculiar
features (as culled from www.yourarticlelibrary.com/society) of community. They are the following:
1. An aggrupation of people, without regards to their demographic accounts, and the size, where a
community is either small or large, is immaterial for the organization of the community.
2. If it is a national community, the second important element is the definite locality where the
members live in.
3. Community sentiment which is shared by the community members, which pertains to the shared
feelings of the people towards any endeavor involving the community in general.
4. Naturality which pertains to the fact that a community is organized as naturally as can be, that it
becomes instinctive among the members of the community to come together to form a socio-
political aggrupation organization.
5. Permanence refers to the permanent nature of the aggrupation in terms of its existence and the
physical location of their territory. A community is not as temporary as a crowd.
6. Similarity has reference to the cultural details, historical accounts, and normative standard of
behavior, usages and the like which are common to the members of the community.
7. Organized social life which means that all aspects of the social life of the people are included in
the community life, and with this essence, a community is the miniature of the society.
8. Wider ends which refers to the different objectives that the community is geared at and not
focused ln just one end or purpose.

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Community action
According to Local Government Association ([email protected] ), community action is any
activity that increases the understanding, engagement and empowerment of communities in the
design and delivery of local services.
It includes a broad range of activities which are sometimes called ‘social action' or ‘community
engagement’. As per this definition, we are made to understand that community action is in itself the
sum total of the collective endeavor of the people. An example of which is capacitating the women in
the production of face masks using indigenous or local materials. In the said sample activity, the
women would not only be trained but they will be empowered- empowered in the sense that these
women will be given an employment opportunity not just for a day or a week but probably for months
or even a year or years. A mere clean-up drive or tree-planting would be a community activity but it
lacks a long- range empowerment, therefore it does not answer to the call of a community action.
Community action programs bear different objectives. They also differ in terms of the
involvement of the people, with particular reference to the identified sector and the identified officials
and the program focal person as well. And, there is a variation of kinds of activities, like the conduct
of leadership training or literacy program or health awareness or food preservation training-workshop
and the like. Bottom line, whatever the activity is, all of these community action programs are geared
towards engagement and empowerment of the people and these same people shall be capacitated
with the skills of planning, designing and delivery of local services.

Purposes of Community Action

Just like any other endeavor, a community action has its purposes and they are as
follows:
1. To help and encourage the children and the youth.
The base of any community is the children’s group and the youth sector. It is incumbent
then in the community leaders to build a strong base to attain the goals of development. In so doing,
community initiatives must be extended to these groups to capacitate and empower them so that
they would be enjoined to participate in community-based activities. Building a strong and
capacitated base could be done through community action activities like literacy program, leadership
training- workshop, or any program that promotes mental health, and the like, where children of
school age and the so-called out-of-school youth are to be encouraged to participate to hone their
reading and leadership skills which they could use later on to be of help to the community.

2. To help and support the marginalized sector.

The so-called marginalized sector of the community must not be forgotten nor
disregarded. This sector should not be mocked as a liability of the community, rather, should be
regarded as a moving force for the community to endeavor towards development. This sector must
be extended all the help they need and that the community is able to give to them. The community
would find itself lagging behind if the issues of the marginalized sector are not properly addressed.
Also, disparity and social inequity could mar good community relations. This sector has reference to
the impoverished members of the community, the members of the indigenous people’s groups, or
even the women sector. Through community action activities, these identified sectors in the
community would become the participants to training programs or workshops to help them be
emancipated from their pitiful plight.

3. To invigorate and honor the elderly.

There should be community action activities to be designed and implemented to make the
elderly feel and realize that they have not been stripped off of their place in the community. It should
be understood that the older a person becomes, the lesser the activities are, therefore, the so-called
elderly, colloquially called the senior citizens, tend to be homebody and immobile and this plight
reduce them to debasement. For this reason, community action planners must also consider
programs to elicit the youth in them, community initiatives to revive their stamina and vigor, activities
that would make them feel they are still partners in developmental programs of the community and
activities that would revive and sustain the wisdom of being the elders in the community.

4. To strengthen the community, as a whole.

A requisite to the strengthening of the community would be a scenario where the children and youth
have been molded so as to be partners in community- building, when the marginalized and
streamlined sectors of the community are recognized and sustained and when the older members of
the community are energized and honored. Strength of the empowered members of the community,
from the children through the youth to the elderly. It goes without saying that no matter how good
and efficient the leaders are if the people living in it are in a pitiful state, everything would be of no
use. Strength is determined not only with the number of population or the size of the territory but with

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 the empowerment exuded by all of the members of said community. The human resource of the
community is more that the physical and geographical make-up. At the end of the day, when the
community folks have all been vitalized, the entire community becomes dynamic.
Importance of Community Action
Accordingly, community action poses importance to the dynamism of the people. Community
action is implemented not just out of the whims of the leaders or just for a show, rather, it is
undergone for a cause. Because of this ,the significance of a community action could be broken
down into the following:

1. Community action is about putting communities at the heart of their own local
services. (https://brainly.ph/question/152455#)
This means that the people in the community are motivated in making the community’s objectives
and needs as their focus and they themselves will be the ones taking charge of the services to
satisfy such. The community members are the participants to any community action initiative and
whatever and however they are capacitated, they themselves will be the ones who shall deliver the
identified service and gain from it.

2. Building community and social capacity.

This presupposes that community action activities would help develop skills which would capacitate
the people for any endeavor while they would be intimated with the needed knowledge and ideas.
The skills which the people would be capacitated with shall have a long range effect, meaning, the
people could use such skill in engaging in business, or to earn an income or to capacitate other
people. This way, the people become active participants to the community-building.
As mentioned earlier, it is not capacitating the people for just a day or a week, but could even be for
a lifetime.

3. Community resilience.
This means that the community could become self-sustaining with the skills and knowledge they are
capacitated with. For instance, the women sector are made to undergo trainings like basket-weaving
or the male sector are given a training on handicrafts production using local materials, then the
community is able to support itself economically. When the community becomes a self-sustaining
entity, then the community as a whole shall be able to withstand whatever problems, difficulties and
issues that will get in their way.

Community dynamics
What is meant by community dynamics? What has it to do with the community? Does it have
any significance at all in community initiatives and community development programs?

Earlier, we have already defined the concept of ‘community’, so let us also give the nature of
‘dynamics’ and in that case, we shall be able to coin a working definition for the concept community
dynamics. According to Oxford Languages and Google, “dynamics refer to the forces or properties
which stimulate growth, development, or change within a system process.” Basing from this
definition, we could deduce that the word dynamics entails vigor, energy, stamina, strength
enthusiasm, and any other positive stimulus within the person and beyond him, so as to bring about
growth and development or any welcome change in the person.

Community dynamics then would refer to a process of change in the midst of the people in the
community, powered by the unequalled vigor and enthusiasm of the same people. Further, there
shall exist community dynamics when the people are capacitated as well. Going back to the
scenarios cited earlier, we can say that as a consequence of then of an invigorated elders,
empowered children and youth and marginalized sector and a completely strengthened community,
community dynamics become a reality. No vacuum left to allow any form of negativity to rule over the
people. All that the people would manifest are energy and enthusiasm. All of which would refer to
community dynamics.

For a more thorough understanding of what community dynamics is, let us take a look at the
indicators of its significance, which is summarized as follows:
1. Community dynamics allows the members of the community to think creatively and act
strategically towards the achievement of community- set goals. When people are invigorated
and full of enthusiasm and stamina, the better their mental set becomes and they could
conceptualize more feasible and practical plan of action as a matter of keeping it up with the
developmental goals of their community. The same vigor, stamina and enthusiasm will enable them
to work on the implementation of the conceptualized community initiatives.
2. With community dynamics at hand, the quality of living of the more vulnerable sectors of
the community is alleviated. One of the first targets of community initiatives is to secure the
status of the impoverished and other marginalized sectors of the community. Thus, if the more
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 fortunate community members are not energetic enough to work for social change therein, then, the
streamlined sectors would remain in the lowest ebb of the community.

3. Community dynamics allows the people to develop a good insight of how and what they feel
about the place they live in. Knowing, appreciating and understanding the very physical conditions
in the place where you live in would make you develop good attitude or as we colloquially say, good
vibes, towards the community. This would be done only when you are interested about your
community; when you want to get involved in any undertaking of your community; when you have
innate concern about your community.

Community Dynamics and Applied Social Sciences

We have learned in Disciplines and Ideas in the Applied Social Sciences that there are three
areas of concern, namely Counselling, Social Work and Communication. In all three areas, the
practitioner needs to have a background about the personality that makes up a community she is
bound to work for and work with. Because if one has not experienced being immersed with a certain
community previously, she would not be in the know on how to deal with the energy, stamina and
enthusiasm of your clientele. Having a feel of community dynamism would capacitate say for
instance a social worker to effectively and efficiently dispense of her job in the field dealing with the
marginalized sector as her clientele, or a police officer in dealing with offenders or a teacher dealing
not only with her students but with the stakeholders as well.

Community Action and Applied Social Sciences

Most of the community action programs designed and implemented are related to the tasks
of Social Workers, Communication practitioners or Teachers or Counsellors and the like. Examples
of which are Reading Program for the Children and the Youth, Leadership Training and a lot more. It
goes without saying then that community action and Applied Social Sciences work together and
would provide the appropriate training for the would-be-graduates of college programs aligned with
Applied Social Sciences.

Career Choices and Community Dynamics and Community Action

As per observation, most graduates of the Humanities and Social Sciences strand, venture
into college programs like Psychology, Education, Criminology, Communication Arts and Bachelor of
Arts courses. And if you look deeper into the nature of work one has to engage with after graduation,
you are right, the job calls for some skills and knowledge of community dynamics and community
action. For instance, as cited earlier, as an Education graduate one would not only be charged with
teaching the learners but to become the guidance counsellor giving advices to the students and even
the parents or go for home visitations maybe bringing with her some provisions for the concerned
student.

Explore

Activity 1. Arrange Me
Direction. Rearrange the jumbled words on the left part and be guided by the stated
meanings. These are words related to community action and dynamics, applied social
sciences and career choices. (Copy and answer this in you paper)

Jumbled words Meaning

CERAHTE One who acts as our second parent in school.
The main task of a Psychology graduate when employed in a school
LNSICUEOGN and usually done at the guidance office.
UMCMOYITN Group of people living in a definite territory and share a lot of
commonalities.
EMCRI An example of which is murder and this is one act to be dealt with by
police officers.
YSOPCYGOHL This is the college program which the second word has to
complete.
DBGROANSCATI One of the possible jobs of graduate of a communication
program.
SCLOIA KORW An applied social science discipline which requires field work.
PLOEPE The clientele, in general, of applied social sciences.

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 The people in the community who would become the core persons
SFFLOICAI when community programs are implemented.
The act of living or staying with the members of a certain sector of
ISMREMINO the community for observation or participation purposes.

Activity 2. “Fill Me”

Direction. Fill in the blanks with the correct answers. (Copy and answer this in you paper.)

1. The marginalized sector has reference to the

members of the community, the members
of the indigenous people’s groups, or even the women sector.
2. Community action is about putting communities at the of their
own local services.
3. Community action is any activity that increases the understanding,
and empowerment of communities in the design and delivery
of local services.
4. The people in the community have built relationships anchored from trust, love, sense
of , compassion and
responsibility.
5. A community is a “group of people with characteristics who
are linked by social ties, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action in
geographical locations or settings.

Community using different perspective, e.g., social sciences,

Lesson 2 institutions, civil society, and local/grassroots level

Discover

By now you already have an idea with regards the nature of community from the general
social perspective. As mentioned earlier, the concept shall in a while be described according to how it is
viewed by the social sciences, the different institutions, by the members of the grassroots and by the civil
society.

Social sciences and community

As you have learned in your Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences back in Grade 11,
when you talk of social sciences, you are referring to the different disciplines under its wings like
Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. For purposes of
discussion, we shall be taking Political Science and Sociology, separately. From the general social
science perspective, a community is a group of people who are connected and related by virtue of
their historical and cultural beginnings and experiences, and identified through their geographical and
ethnical attributes. Considering this definition, it could be seen as a historical and an anthropological
perspective because the community involves the beginnings of the people as well as the traditions and
practices which are common to them. A classic example of which is the entire community (society) of the
Filipino people as we are bonded by a common history and culture.
Political science sees community as the “polis (state) as composed of various classes each
performing roles and functions in pursuit of communal goals (Plato), and according to Aristotle, he
“emphasized the role of political institutions in maintaining and sustaining order within a community.”
(www.slideshare.net,2018). This perspective gives us the idea that a community is seen as the proper
venue where the roles and functions of the members of the different social classes are realized and
such role-taking must be looked into by the concerned political institution to sustain order therein. From the
micro level, we could take the barangay as our best example to elucidate this definition of community.
From the point-of-view of sociology, in the Gemeinschaft level, a community is an aggrupation of
people with close bonding, where kinship prevails while taking care of the engagement and empowerment
of the people. In the Gesselschaft level, a community is seen as an association of loosely-bonded
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individuals driven by the pursuit of self-sustenance while working for a common objective for the group.
Gemeinschaft is synonymous with our rural community, while Gesselschaft is the city or urban community.

Institutions and Community

When we talk of institutions, we are referring to the social institutions, the religious, educational,
economic, even the medical institution and the mass media. From their perspectives, community is
described as an aggrupation of people, but they just vary on the objectives for coming together and what
binds the members. In the institutions of religious faith, the members are bonded together because of the
shared creed, as well as their commitment towards their faith. They also go by the norms, roles and values
which accompany their shared faith. Their common objective is to empower people through religion.

From the perspective of the members of the academe, the school as a community is organized
to satisfy the main objective of nurturing learners to empower them and to promote and implement the
educational goals of the state. And the members of the educational community observe common protocol
and they have role-sharing as well. As for the economic institutions, like the manufacturing industries, they
are viewed to exist with a societal or community-like personality with the common objective of producing
tangible goods for the consumers and in the process, they are bound by similar restrictions, adhere to
same regulations and answer to responsibilities akin to that of the others.

A hospital, on the other hand, is also viewed as separate community because it is comprised of
medical and para-medical practitioners who help satisfy the medical needs and issues of the people.

Civil Society and Community

“Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and institutional forms, varying in their
degree of formality, autonomy and power.” (Kamensky 2008) Basing from this definition of civil society, it is
understood tht it includes people’s organizations, charities, nongovernmental organizations, women’s
organizations, professional aggrupation, community-based organizations and others. Civil society
adherents view community as “being largely comprised of voluntary civil and social organizations and
institutions that act collectively or individually on behalf of their larger community.” (Kamensky, 2008).
Taking it from the micro perspective, according to the civil society perception, a community then brings
together voluntarily individuals who share the same interests, sentiments, or needs, bound by common
values, roles and norms in the pursuit of shared objectives for the members.
If we are to cite examples of the civil society, we could drop the people’s organizations, and non-
governmental organization (NGO) and a specific example of an NGO is the LUVWI (La Union Vibrant
Women Inc.) (De Guzman 2009, scribbed.com). The members of this nongovernmental organization are
not altogether geographically located rather they come from different municipalities of La Union. They were
brought together by a common cause or objective which are to promote women empowerment and child
growth and welfare (https://m.facebook.com/LaUnionVibrantWomen/ ). Taking the specific example in the
LUVWI, this nongovernmental organization may have viewed the community as a an avenue to extend help
to a specific sector which is perceived to be in need of help.

The grassroots level and the community

According to Oxford Languages and Google, grassroots refer to the “ ordinary people regarded as
the main body of the organization’s membership.” And as per Vocabulary.com Dictionary, grassroots “is at
the most basic level of something, down there in the dirt with the roots of an idea or activity.” As suggested
by the aforementioned definitions, grassroots level should be understood as referring to the lesser
fortunate members of a community, or the common people or the farmers or the fisher folks who seem to
just be identified with the plow or the fishing net because they are the people considered as the ones
literally down there and gets to be dirtied as they toil with what they best do. Aside from those identified
with the agricultural sector, we could also identify those people engaged in the blue-collar jobs as they are
a well branded as ordinary beings.
According to brainly.ph, (2017) the grassroots view community as “not just a network of
socialization but it is a relationship between people that bring each and everyone together in a way that
allow them to do things they cannot or could not be done because of isolation.” From this description of
community, we can infer that the grassroots look upon the other members of the community for
dependence and protection. That because they seem to be the neglected sector, logically they would seek
for attention from the more able and more capacitated individuals. When they find people, who are willing to
cater to their needs, then it would only be then that they can say that they belong. As a result, having a feel
of a sense of belongingness would complete their perception of what a community is.

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 Explore

Activity 1. Name It! Write It!

Direction. Enumerate what is asked for and write them down below.
1. Name at least two aggrupation’s which are identified with civil society.
a.
b.
2. Examples of the so-called grassroots.
a.
b.
3. Give at least 3 Social Science disciplines which were mentioned earlier as having
different perspectives about community.

Activity 2. Accrostick!
Direction. Write an Acrostic Poem for the word community. Choose one from the topics below
1. COMMUNITY in relation to the perspective of social sciences.
2. COMMUNITY in relation to the perspective of nongovernmental organizations.

C -
O -
M -
M -
U -
N -
I -
T -
Y -

Assessment

I. Match It Up!
Direction. Match column A with column B. Choose the appropriate answer from column B. Answer
directly (Write the word, not only the letter).

Column A Column B
1. It refers to a career choice aligned with Psychology A. Community
2. It is the design to be completed before a community action B. Social Work
activity is implemented.
3. It refers to the people who exist and coexist with each C. Community Dynamics
other and share a lot of commonalities.
4. This concept involves the energy, stamina, vigor and D. Counselling
forcefulness of the people.
5. A significance of community action talks about the capability

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 to become self-sustaining. E. Community Resilience
6. It is a career choice which entails field work. F. Elderly
7. This is the sector which is invigorated through an G. Marginalized
appropriate community action program.
8. This concept goes with engagement as a nature of H. Community Action
community action.
9. This is the ultimate purpose of community action. I. Empowerment
10. This is the sector of the community which is J. Strengthen the
primarily helped and supported through a community action. Community

II. Guess What!

Direction. Identify what is asked for and write the correct answer the space provided for
before each number.
1. They are the members of the bigger society who perceive the community as
more than a mere network of socialization because it is a relationship among
people which will allow dependence and support for each other.
2. This discipline of social sciences perceives the community to be an aggrupation
of closely bonded persons because of kinship.
3. This refers to the primary binding factor of the members of an institution of
religious faith.
4. What is this institution which is perceived to cater to the needs of consumers
and the other clientele?
5. The La Union Vibrant Women Incorporated is an example of what civil society
aggrupation?
6. Which of the institutions mentioned earlier is perceived as the kind of
community which nurtures the learners by honing their skills and enhancing
their knowledge?
7. Aside from the promotion of child growth and welfare, what is the other objective
of LUVWI?
8. It is the social science discipline which perceives the community as such because
of its polis-like characteristic.
9. This institution perceives the community to be an aggrupation of practitioners who
are wont on catering to the medical needs and issues of the people.
10.It is perceived differently by different entities, depending on the objectives and
purposes it serves.