COMMUNITY HEALTH I
INTRODUCTION AND PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY HEALTH
Carey Francis Okinda
2015
TOPIC 1 – INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY STUDIES
Objectives
At the end of the topic the learner will be able to”: -
1) Define basic concepts in community health
2) Describe characteristics of a community
3) Identify types of communities
4) Discuss factors that hold communities together
5) Discus theories governing study of communities
1.0 DEFINITIONS
A community is a group of people who are located in a particular space in a defined
geographical area, have shared values and interact with a social system. The
community has four components - people, location in space, social interaction and
shared values.
Community is a concept employed in the study of human societies and suggests two
types of relational ideas that is
1) Members of a group of people having something in common with each other
2) Members of a group of people distinguishable in a significant way from members
of other groups
Communities have boundaries that encapsulate the identity of that community. The
manner in which the boundaries are marked depends entirely upon the specific
community in question (what holds them together = boundaries). The boundaries can
be physical or abstract.
o E.g. some like national or administrative boundaries may be statutory and
enshrined in law or some may be physically expressed by a mountain range, water
body, etc.
o Some other boundaries may be racial e.g. blacks, whites, Asians
o May be based on a language e.g. Francophone and Anglophone
o Religious boundaries – Muslims, Christians
Community is an entity to which one belongs which is greater than kinship and within
it an individual acquires fundamental experience of social life outside the home
Other Definitions
1
,1) A group of people sharing characteristics and interests that live within a larger society,
from which those features distinguish it.
2) A community can be conceived in three dimensions as a:
a) Place where the physical environment is thought of as natural or as artificial;
b) Group of people, like a population. Communities however differ in the size of
their populations and in the social characteristics of their inhabitants
c) Social system - a community as a system can be considered as the totality of
interactions among subsystems (health, education, economy, religion, family and
communication), because every community has a variety of behavioural rules
that satisfy local needs through the specialization of functions and of the people
that make up these subsystems.
3) A set of population groups that live together in rural or urban places in specific
conditions of organization and of social and cultural cohesion.
4) Like something more concrete than society to which some common denominators that
shape it are attributed, such as organization, interrelation, coexistence, integration,
functionalism, identity consciousness, some common direction in collective actions
etc.
5) The community as a whole which has three key components namely function,
structure and culture.
6) A group of individuals that live together in a specific geographical place, that maintains
social relations among its members who recognize that they belong to such a
community
7) A dynamic social group, that exists prior to the intervention of the researcher that
shares problems and interests in a specific space and time
8) A group of people that shares a common territory, a set of common resources, and a
common culture, that interacts frequently, and that considers themselves as part of a
social group defined as a community
2.0 CHARACTERISTICS OF MEMBERS OF A COMMUNITY
1) Learn a particular culture and that culture governs that particular community. Culture
has a set of beliefs and rules and governing their institutions
2) Have particular ways of doing things
3) Show commitment to a common body of symbols.
4) Believe they make a similar sense of things either generally or with respect to
specific and significant interests
3.0 THEORIES GOVERNING STUDY OF COMMUNITIES
Theories are a set of explanations about a phenomenon and it is developed from
observations that could be formal or informal
Formal – researches carried out and results put together
Informal – observe and form an opinion or explanation
2
, The theories include: -
1) Theory of social systems
2) Theory of structural determinism
3) Theory of interpretivism
4) Theory of Symbolism
3.1 Theory of Social Systems (Network)
Views a community as a system made up of subsystems of statuses and roles,
institutions and regulations
A community is a particular type of social system distinguished by the following
characteristics:
i) People involved in the system have a sense and recognition of the relationships
and areas of common concerns with other members.
ii) The system has longevity, continuity and is expected to persist.
iii) Its operations depend considerably on voluntary cooperation, with a minimal use
(or threat) of sanctions or coercion.
iv) It is multi-functional. The system is expected to produce many things and to be
attuned to many dimensions of interactions.
v) The system is complex, dynamic and sufficiently large that instrumental
relationships predominate.
vi) Usually, there is a geographic element associated with its definition and basic
boundaries.
System
o Components are statues and roles; institutions/groups and regulations
o Sub systems are closely related with one another and form the big system
Status – individual’s position in any social group e.g. family, church, organization
Roles – manner in which an individual behaves as he/she occupies his/her status that
has been assigned to him/her
Institution/groups
Community
Institutions/groups + rules/regulations
Statuses/roles
Change in systems and community change occurs at 3 levels
i) Individual
ii) Interrelation (groups)
iii) Structures/rules/regulations
Individual - human being
3
, a) Cognitive domain
Brain – critical thinking (make individual to think critically)
b) Emotional domain
Involve one’s emotions in accepting change and feel the necessity to accept
change
What kind of emotion is required to bring about change
What are the safe levels of emotions
How to utilize emotions for the benefit of the system or community
c) Behavioural domain
Is all about actions of individuals
Changes in cognitive and emotional domains is useless unless they evoke
behaviour change
Individuals must cat in their right way to encourage development
Key stake holders will be important in giving direction and change - think of
opinion leaders
Think of appropriate examples
among
3.2 Theory of the communities
Structural in Kenya.
Determinisms
E. Durkheim is the proponent
Is related to the social theory
Views a community as a social structure
Social determinism theory holds the view that structure determines behaviour e.g. if
one designates a particular structure as a classrooms then that determines what will
happen in there
If the structure is used for something else of for a different purpose then judgment will
be made that normality had been suspended either through the imposition of another
structural form or through pathological breakdown of structural order
This view implies a consensus of meaning and a compliance with structure
It describes communities in terms of their constituent institutions e.g. ceremonies
Looks at communities in terms of interests
Since structure determines behaviour it would follow that people located in that social
structure will behave in similar ways. They would perceive things and issues similarly
and would attach similar meanings to things. This implied uniformity
Structure (religion, school, government, group) → meaning
Uniformity is a construct hence you cannot expect uniformity leading to development
of another theory – the theory of interpretivism
Think of appropriate examples
among the communities in Kenya.
4
