R.J

Soc. 235 Community Organization

October 5, 1999

Sex, race and ethnic identity is use to organize people across a neighborhood.

Identity: a set of belief by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group.

Advantage of an organizer on a community:

1. It can put people from different location; No restrictions.

However, you must be conscious on technology. Technology can make identity organization much easier, such as communicated through the Internet.

What is the problem in using the Internet?

This is a problem because not everyone has a computer or access to the Internet.

What make something a resource? Any survival need is a resource.

A neighborhood is a resource for organizers. A neighborhood provides us with important base of people=s identity and a base of information to help run campaign and communication.

Community organization is how people without power get power. People get power not only individual but by being a part of the community.

Advantages of an organizer on a community level V. a higher level:

1. People in communities share common issues.

2. It is more manageable.

3. It offers power and builds on share experience.

Common identity is often rooted in a common geographical location, common upcoming, and social background.

Organizing begins at the community level. A community provides stability or a building blocks.

Dominate values in community society:

Winners take all. We live in competitive society.

Individualism: dominant values, pursue as dangerous, useless, and inequality in power.

Subdominant values: are not general accepted.

A neighborhood is a geographical place. It also referred to race, gender, class (economics), common issues, population, religion, entertainment, schools, architecture (sensory), occupation (police neighborhoods), environmental conditions (lacking of city services), age (older /younger), districts, status, language, ethnicity, zoning laws, crime, safety

( perception), and history. These elements all identify us and physical traits. These elements help you as an organizer because you know the key aspects of a community.

Concept of an organizer:

1. to be an evaluator; social or a neighborhood historian by looking it what the identity of the community is.

Community is looked in different ways:

For instance, Warren &Warrens think about a neighborhood as a social system.

System: a network; parts working together, interdependence; a way to organize people, dynamics (always changing)

Social system could be implied when we talk about age, occupation, gender, race and class.

Less visible characteristics:

Redlining: when refuse home mortgages or insurances to areas or neighborhoods deemed poor financial risks. To discriminate against by refusing to grant loans, mortgages, or insurance to you in a certain neighborhood is illegal. Therefore neighborhoods are cut off.

Neighborhoods are characterized as norms.

Norms: hidden rules or values; good vs. bad; learned behavior.

This help us by giving us a way in the neighborhood. You know how to approach people.

Neighborhoods can be based on mutual aid, identity, status, or social place. Neighborhoods could also be a place you can identify with (a comfort zone).