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Theoretical lenses
Lens 1 The social construction of community
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Communities are real because … they consist of real things
This module is about studying communities. In some ways this is the same as studying natural phenomena
such as rocks or trees or ecosystems, because human communities often contain tangible things such as
people and land and cars and houses and food and water. In this module we will not focus much on these
tangible things. However, it is important to remember that real, tangible things (such as access to clean air
and water, reliable sources of food, and secure housing) is what keeps communities going.
Communities are real because … they are socially constructed
In this module we will focus instead on another way in which communities are real, namely in that they are
‘socially constructed’. Working together, people invent ways of looking at and responding to the world, and
because all of us, or enough of us, share the same perspective the thing we invented (or ‘socially
constructed’) becomes effectively real. For example, most of us believe in something called ‘love’, so we have
boyfriends and girlfriends and husbands and wives and children and family and much more. ‘Love’, or more
specifically romantic love, may or may not be real, but our shared belief in it tells us how to behave from day
to day. It has created a whole world for us that makes sense as part of the universe of love, a universe that
provides us with meaning, and that even creates economic opportunities for us (think for example of the
wedding venue industry). The idea of ‘community’ is like that. It doesn’t matter if ‘community’ really exists - ou
belief in the idea of community and in the existence of particular communities has real consequences. So the
shared idea of community and of the existence of specific communities makes community and communities
real.
‘Community’ is about insiders and outsiders
The term ‘community’ implies two things:
1. There are people who belong together, who are of one mind, who have shared interests and motives, and
who care for one-another. Together they form ‘the community’. When we hear the word ‘community’ we
tend to think of something like the ‘shire’ in Lord of the Rings - a place where people are at home and live
in harmony with one another.
2. Conversely, ‘community’ suggests that there are people who do not belong - the outsiders who are
somehow different from those who form part of the community.
There is truth to both these implications: It is true that communities consist of people who have something in
common (such as living in the same area or sharing common interests) and it is true that there are always
people who are outsiders and who do not belong to a particular community. However, using the term
‘community’ can trick us in two ways: First the ‘insiders’ may be much more diverse than the term ‘community
suggests. For example, talking about the “Bethal community” (Bethal is a smallish agricultural town in
Mpumalanga, South Africa) makes us think that everybody in Bethal belongs together and have the same
interests, but in fact there may be many divisions within the Bethal community, such as between rich and poo
people, White and Black people, men and women, farmers and farm workers, and so on. Second, by how we
define the boundaries of the community (that is by saying who is included and excluded) we can make
Bethal’s problems and their potential solutions appear in different ways. For example, if we focus on the
‘Bethal community’, then we make it look as if addressing a problem such as HIV/AIDS infections in Bethal is
purely the problem of people within Bethal. However, if we focus instead on the ‘Mpumalanga community’ or
the ‘South African community’ or the ‘Global community’ then the problem of HIV/AIDS in Bethal and its
possible solutions start to look very different.
So, whenever you hear the term ‘community’ (even in this module!) you should be suspicious. Who is being
included and made to look as if they are all the same and belong together? Who is being excluded and made
to look as if they are irrelevant to the issues being faced by the community?
There are ready-made ideas about different types of communities
Just as we have stereotypical ideas and prejudices about particular types of people (e.g., “young people are
irresponsible” or “men are unfaithful”), we have stereotypical ideas about particular communities. For
example, most South Africans have a particular image of what a township community is like. Many people
think that rural communities are less sophisticated than urban ones The gay community is widely believed to
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think that rural communities are less sophisticated than urban ones. The gay community is widely believed to
be supportive of promiscuity. And so on. Much of what is said or written about any particular community is
likely to be ‘overwritten’ by such preconceived ideas about the type of community that the community is
thought to be. So, when we get information about a particular community we should take into account that it
might just be repeating preconceived ideas about that type of community.
Communities arise from particular histories
Communities are not timeless, but are the products of a series of large and small events that help them to
come into being and to continue existing. Communities are (socially) constructed over time - they don’t spring
into existence out of nowhere. It is important to know about the immediate, local history of a community, but
perhaps even more important is to understand how a community is the product of large historical forces. In
South-Africa most communities have been shaped by our colonial and apartheid past and, in like manner, our
communities continue to be shaped by democracy and our present history. We have dedicated a separate
‘theoretical lens’ to exploring how this continues to unfold.
Communities exist in particular social environments
Communities do not exist in a vacuum, but are sustained by the social environment within which they exist.
This environment can be understood as consisting of elements that range from tangible (such as people and
institutions), through explicitly formulated but intangible (such as policies and procedures) to non-explicit and
non-tangible (such as discourses and ideologies). We have dedicated a separate ‘theoretical lens’ to
exploring how to make sense of the social environments that surround communities.
Communities are sustained by the knowledge that is made and circulated about them
Communities come into existence and thrive because people keep creating representations of what each
community is ‘really like’. These representations can take many forms - serious academic analyses, mass
media coverage, social media posts, informal gossip, artifacts and so on. We have dedicated a separate
‘theoretical lens’ to exploring how knowledge is made about communities.
Communities change and can be re-imagined
Communities are not static, but keep evolving and changing, among other things because we can choose to
imagine them differently. This module is an invitation not only to create representations of and reflections on
communities as they are, but also to try and imagine them as they could be.
Some interesting readings and videos
1. Not sure what to make of social constructionism? There is a vast amount written about it (of course!), but
here is a short 2 minute video introduction - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVCkJ7jLnz0
2. Infed (a not-for-profit site provided by the YMCA George Williams College) has an interesting post on
What is community? - http://infed.org/mobi/community/ Here is a taster: “the use of the term community
has remained to some extent associated with the hope and the wish of reviving once more the closer,
warmer, more harmonious type of bonds between people vaguely attributed to past ages.”
Self assessment
To test your understanding of this theoretical lens, do the social construction of community quiz - just click on
the link below.
(To see a list of all the quizzes look under "Online Assessment".)
Lens 2: The social construction of Community Psychology
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Community Psychology is created and sustained by university courses on Community Psychology
Books and articles about Community Psychology often speak about the sub-discipline primarily as a practical
endeavour that happens ‘out there’, in communities. In fact, much of Community Psychology actually happen
at universities - there are probably many more university academics who do research, publish articles and
teach courses on Community Psychology than there are practising Community Psychologists. To understand
Community Psychology it is therefore important to consider how it functions within the discipline of
Psychology as it is taught at universities. A fair proportion of what is written about Community Psychology
probably reflects how academics **imagine** that Psychology could contribute to communities, rather than
how Psychology actually contributes to communities.
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