This handbook takes voluntary associations as the starting point for making sense of communities. It offers a new perspective on voluntary organizations and gives an integrated, yet diverse, theoretical understanding of this important aspect of community life.

Although the way associations and the organization of local social life are intertwined is one of the oldest approaches to community study, the way citizens and residents come together informally to act and solve problems has rarely been a primary focus. Associations are central to important and developing areas of social theory and social action. This handbook takes voluntary associations as the starting point for making sense of communities. It offers a new perspective on voluntary organizations and gives an integrated, yet diverse, theoretical understanding of this important aspect of community life.

The book features the work of leading researchers drawn from diverse areas of research and social theory whose work overlaps with the world of local associations. They offer theoretical perspectives and review relevant literature. This book will form the foundation for a discipline in social science study as well as a sophisticated resource useful to practitioners around theworld.

The theory of civil society is based on the notion that informal groups, social movements, civic associations, and small formal nonprofit organizations form a cohesion of social organization that integrates society. They address a local problem, become an important focus of life for participants, and a formidable presence in the political realm This volume will present contributions from experts in the field of community life - groups such as PTAs, block associations, fraternal organizations and self-help groups (AA) to congregations, Internet chat clubs, and political action movements Included will be the current theoretical perspectives for understanding of the empirical materials, descriptions of the transformations in what "community" is, and how the individual both defines the community and vice versa on many levels

Klappentext

How citizens and residents come together informally to act and solve problems has rarely been addressed. Little direct research or theory dealing with this subject exists, and correcting that deficit is the task of this book. The book builds a theory of local organizations by presenting contributions from experts in the field of community life - groups such as PTAs, block associations, fraternal organizations, self-help groups (AA), congregations, and even Internet chat clubs. The goal of this book is to form the foundation for a "discipline" in social science study, and be a sophisticated resource that will be useful to practitioners around the world.

Inhalt
Contemporary Conceptions of Community.- Symbolism, Tradition, Ritual, and the Deep Structure of Communities.- Small Towns and Mass Society.- Small Nonprofits and Civil Society: Civic Engagement and Social Capital.- Community Elites and Power Structure.- The Political-Economic Gradient and the Organization of Urban Space.- Public and Private Space in Urban Areas: House, Neighborhood, and City.- The Development of Community Information Systems to Support Neighborhood Change.- Describing the Community in Thorough Detail.- Communities as Big Small Groups: Culture and Social Capital.- Sense of Community and Community Building.- Friendship and Community Organization.- Self-Help Groups as Participatory Action.- Online Communities.- Alternative or Intentional? Towards a Definition of Unusual Communities.- Frayed Community: The Gated Community Movement.- Congregations and Communities.- Ethnicity and Race as Resource Mobilization in American Community Civic Life and Participation: Traditional and Emerging Concerns.- Sustaining Racially, Ethnically, and Economically Diverse Communities.- Community Responses to Disaster: Northern Ireland 1969 as a Case Study.- The Nature of Community Organizing: Social Capital and Community Leadership.- Avoid, Talk, or Fight: Alternative Cultural Strategies in the Battle Against Oligarchy in Collectivist-Democratic Organizations.- Grassroots Social Movements and the Shaping of History.- Action Research: Professional Researchers in the Community.- Leadership Styles and Leadership Change in Human and Community Service Organizations.- Including and Excluding Volunteers: Challenges of Managing Groups That Depend on Donated Talent.