The Pitfalls of the Community Concept in Social Work
Society and Community in Community Work
This document examines the concepts of society and community within the context of community work, highlighting potential misunderstandings and proposing more precise terminology.
1. The Community and Society: Why “Community” Can Be Misleading
In our historical context, the cultural and scientific concept of society should not be replaced by that of community. Let’s look at some reasons:
- Hiding Complexity: The concept of community often generates images that tend to hide the complexity of actual social reality. It transmits a very simplistic image of social harmony and homogeneity that excludes internal conflict. When used as an adjective, community uniquely evokes positive and almost always very warm realities.
- Concealing Reality: The mythical nature of social reality evoked by the concept of community helps to obscure reality and, therefore, is often used as a concept that allows for concealment. In recent times, we have very clear examples of this obfuscating character: neoliberalism has been used to conceal and/or divert legitimate care costs to families (e.g., “community treatment” has been used as an argument to legitimize a reduction in social spending).
- Favorable to Illusions: The concept of community, as an imaginary construct, plays favorably into illusions and interests that are better defined and more widespread in society. When a social reality (e.g., a district, an institution) is imagined as uniform, what is imposed as a necessity or a “community program” is often the discourse of those with a voice (the middle classes). This ignores the weaknesses of people who lack the attributes needed to define their problems as legitimate, or even preferred, collective needs (i.e., groups with less power). It often happens that segments of these so-called communities are mobilized, especially against other segments (e.g., opposing a green block of cheap rental flats inhabited by the poor).
- Promoting Unitary Strategies: The concepts of community and community work, when used inconsistently, tend to create the awareness that organizational strategies should be unitary or consensual (e.g., “go to the most representative association,” “a project involving all collective and institutional actors in planning”). This is a mistake, because interests and aspirations are not always shared.
2. Avoiding Misunderstandings in Concept Use
To foster more effective and inclusive community work, consider the following points regarding the use of these concepts:
- Weak Geographical Identity: The community’s geographical identity is fairly weak. The interests and relationships in an area (e.g., a district) are very varied, and nowadays, the quality and quantity of people’s relationships are relatively independent of territory.
- Use Precise Alternatives: Whenever possible, the concept of community must be replaced by alternative concepts that may prove more precise. Terms such as social space, territory, population, collective, group, neighborhood, or inhabitants must be used at all times with the aim of reducing the pitfalls that we ourselves apply to language.
- Expressing Desire, Not Reality: Restrict the use of the concept of community to express a desire for society and social relations. It would be an expression of the society we want (a non-exclusive, inclusive, robust society), but it should never be considered an expression of the actual features of social reality.
- Diverse Organizational Strategies: Be aware that organizational strategies may not always be of a unitary type. The integration of society happens by multiplying its groups and organizations to empower new voices, strengthen subjects, and generate more social life groups.
- Beyond Locality: Understand that the articulation of groups and actions can be sought and achieved in various spaces beyond the immediate locality. The ultimate aim in community work is the construction of a social fabric capable of generating more global, more integrated, and more ambitious projects and responses.