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Human Services and the Small Community

List of Exhibits (Illustrations and Figures)

Foreword

Acknowledgement

Introduction

1. Community Theory for Practitioners
Theory as Explanation
Personal Values and Community
Illustrations of Change
History as Theory
Gathering Information: Community Centers
Cyberspace as New Reality
Illustrations of Electronic Communities
Summary
2. Understanding the Small Community
Beyond Mere Definitions:Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
The Small Community in Literature and the Press
A Romantic Vision of Home Town
Senator Glenn Comes Home to Ohio
The Two Sides of Small-Town Life for Southern Blacks
The Barrio in Gesellschaft
The Ambivalent Visions of Main Street
Enduring Issues: Community and Culture
A Current Issue: Gays in Small Towns
A Contemporary View of the Industrial Small Town

Summary

3. The Ties that Bond, the Dimensions that Explain
Horizontal and Vertical Ties
Strengthening Vertical Ties
Current Considerations for Practitioners
Personalism in Horizontal Ties
Minimal Essential Elements of Communal Life
And the Remote Villages Survive
Communities as Illustrative Microcosms
Variables as the Focus of Community Research
Small –Town Religion
Summary

4. Community as a Personal Solution
Searching for Identity and Meaning
Community as Psychosocial “Salvation”
Utopian and Alternative Communities
Community and Size
The Manageablity Issue
Parochialism and Size
Communities and Freedom
Communities and Interest
Summary

5. Power, Influence, and Leadership in the Small Community
The Basic Concepts
Practitioners and Small-Town Power Holders
Leadership
Models of Community Power
Elitism
Pluralism
Varieties of Power
Communities, Power Distribution, and Policy Decisions
In Search of Power Actors
The Reputational Approach
The Positional Approach
The Decisional Approach
Using All Three Approaches
Internal and External Influences on Power Actors
Local and Cosmopolitan Influentials
Summary

6. Locality and Localism Reconsidered
Disparate Understandings of Localism
The “Service Delivery” Mode and Localism
The Value and Limitations of the Local
Communicating in the Local Setting
The Professional’s Predicament
Radio Days: Helping in the Local Context
Local Community Research
Summary

7. The Community and Social Work Practice
Moving toward Practice in Community
Locals and Professionals in Community-Oriented Practice
Relationships, Values, and Norms and Practice Behaviors
Local Ties
Ethical Considerations
Anonimity
Confidentiality
Accountability
Indicators of Community-Oriented Social Work

References

Index
About the Author