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THE SOCIOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION OF A COMMUNITY
What Indicators are Needed?
Training Handout
What sociological indicators are necessary for understanding a community?
You need to know how the community is set
up. What is its sociocultural organisation?
What social structures, patterns and processes make up the community?
As well as using these in studying a community, they can
also be useful in studying a family.
To make a complete
ethnography, you need to answer all the following questions. . You may
choose to answer only a few of them according to a limited or narrow hypotheses
that you wish to test.
The best way for you to organise the information
you observe, is first to categorise it into the six sociocultural dimensions.
You met them when you were introduced to the concept of culture
and community: Technological, Economic, Political, Institutional, Values
and Worldview Dimensions. On top of those
six categories, add two non sociological categories:
Geographic and Demographic.
Here we will review those eight categories
of information, with a few suggestions about what you should seek in each.
This is incomplete; you may find more information that will
be useful.
You need to order your observations, therefore,
into the following eight categories: geographic; demographic; technological;
economic; political; institutional; ideological and conceptual.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE COMMUNITY
Where is the community located?
Is the terrain hilly, mountainous or flat?
Is it next to an ocean, a lake, a river?
Is the climate cold, hot, mixed, wet, dry, misty?
How does the weather change over the year?
What crops, herds, gathering, hunting, and/or
agriculture are suitable in the climate and terrain?
Are there well defined planting, harvesting, hunting, fishing
seasons in the year? What factories, processing
plants, industrial facilities, dams, mines, oil wells, related to the environment,
are there?
What is the size by area of the community?
What shape is made by its boundaries?
How is it influenced by its geography? What
is its location: latitude, longitude, proximity to other
geographic features?
What is the community relationship with
the environment? the ecology?
What natural resources are in or nearby: forests, fish, minerals,
soil, wildlife, water, oil, or animals?
Is the community taking advantage of any
of those resources? Where does the community
location fit in with its district, region, province and nation?
How do each of these geographic variables affect the community,
and its ability to help itself to become more self reliant?
THE DEMOGRAPHY OF THE COMMUNITY
What is the population size of the community?
What is its age structure? What
is its dependency ratio (number of young and old in comparison to those
of working and productive ages)? Is the
age pyramid flat or tall? What is its reproduction
rate? What is the ratio between males and
females at each age range? What is the density
(ratio of population to area)?
How fast or slow is the population changing?
Is it increasing or decreasing?
Has that rate changed recently? What is
the rate and amount of emigration (moving out), of immigration (moving
in) and net migration? What age and sex
differences are there in migrations?
What proportion of the residents are "outsiders,"
? people who have moved in from elsewhere
and see themselves still as members of other communities?
How many persons have moved elsewhere, including moves to the
major urban areas, outside the country or elsewhere, but consider themselves
still members of the community?
Is overall the community population size increasing or decreasing?
How fast?
What age and sex categories? Why?
How do each of these demographic variables affect the community, and its
ability to help itself to become more self reliant?
THE TECHNOLOGICAL DIMENSION
What is the broad, general technology?
This ranges from simple to complex, early to later.
Technologies can include: gathering, hunting, fishing, herding,
horticulture, mixed farming, animal powered farming, industrial (machine),
and post industrial (information).
Every community does not necessarily go
through all these as stages; some stages may be missed, and most are accumulative
? new ones added but old ones do not immediately
disappear. What is the nature of the interface
between the culture and its physical environment?
What capital is in the community?
This can include communal: roads, electricity, clinics, water
supply, schools, sanitation. It can be private:
shelter, animal transport, mechanical transport, communication.
How is food processed?
How is it stored? How are other natural
resources processed?
What tools are used
in the community? List them by how they
are powered: hand (human), animal, machine (steam, petroleum,
electric).
Are products produced for sale and export
out of the community? If so, how are they
transported? How easy or difficult is it
to introduce new technology? How fast is
technology changing?
What communications technology is available
in the community? How may residents write
and read? Are there telephones, cell phones,
faxes, internet, radio, television, and combinations?
What proportion of the community population has access to each?
Describe the overall technology of the community.
How do each of these technological variables affect the community,
and its ability to help itself to become more self reliant?
THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION
What kinds of social mechanisms are used
to allocate wealth? These can include: kin
obligations, gifts, potlatch, communal redistribution, barter, monetary
trade, plastic and electronic trade. . What
kinds of wealth can be allocated by one mechanism, such as marriage partners,
but not by others, such as through money.
What is the degree of monetisation?
Are farm and fish products sold or used for immediate consumption,
or both? What ratio? How much cash might be available for communal
fund raising? What sources are available
for fund-raising and how much for each?
These can include wealthy patrons, migrants in the cities willing to send
money home for development, local factories and commercial firms willing
to contribute, cash crop farmers and fishers.
Where does the community fit on a rural-urban spectrum?
Is credit available? Are there savings rotation clubs, loan sharks, pawn shops, banks,
credit unions, trust organisations, stock brokerage?
What proportion of the community population has access to each?
Describe the overall economic system of
the community. How do each of these economic
variables affect the community, and its ability to help itself to become
more self reliant?
THE POLITICAL DIMENSION
What are the mechanisms through which power
and influence are allocated in the community?
These can include: traditional (by succession, chieftaincy, family power),
modern democratic (voting, representational democracy), participatory democracy,
power broking (unions, associations, organisations), charisma.
How much influence do persons have without
being recognised formally as political leaders?
These include religious leaders, educational leaders, senior civil servants,
senior health practitioners, elders in influential kin groups, wealthy
individuals.
What influence is exercised without political
power? How extant is the traditional (eg
pre-colonial) political system? What external factors are important?.
These can include national party politics, influential absent community
members, and others that you might observe.
Describe the overall political system of
the community. How do each of these political
or power variables affect the community, and its ability to help itself
to become more self reliant?
THE SOCIAL / INSTITUTIONAL DIMENSION
What patterns of interaction are part of
the social fabric of the community? What
is the family and kinship system? Is there
a chieftaincy system? Is it traditional
or co-opted by the national governmental system, or bits of
both?
What organisations are part of the community
(non profit, commercial, governmental)?
What clubs, congregations, political parties, ethnic and other associations
are part of the community social organisation?
What is the rate, extent and nature of civic engagement?
Are factions in competition
with each other? What is the potential for
unity organising to reduce conflict between factions?
How much and in what ways have modern, non
family organisations replaced the functions formerly taken care of solely
by the kin system? How much social interaction
is moulded by various kinds of social institutions?
What is the potential for forming and developing
community based organisations for self help projects?
Describe the overall social and interaction
system of the community. How do each of
these sociological variables affect the community, and its ability to help
itself to become more self reliant?
THE IDEOLOGICAL / VALUES DIMENSION
What are the values shared in the community
(right, wrong, beautiful, ugly, good, bad)?
Are there values that differ from faction to faction?
What political values are shared?
What are the major differences in political values?
What religious values are shared? How much does organised religion
define community values?
What values will affect how self help groups can be organised?
Describe the overall ideological or value
system of the community. How do each of
these value variables affect the community, and its ability to help itself
to become more self reliant?
THE CONCEPTUAL / WORLDVIEW DIMENSION
How do members of the community see the
universe? How do they explain causes of
disease and misfortune? What are their beliefs?
To what degree are they shared versus part of disagreements?
What universal or global religions are represented
in the community? How much are traditional religious beliefs shared by
community members?
What is the amount of syncretism (adding
new beliefs without subtracting contradictory old ones) in the community?
What proportions of the community see themselves as members of formal religious
organisations?
Describe the overall conceptual / worldview
system of the community. How do each of
these conceptual or worldview variables affect the community, and its ability
to help itself to become more self reliant?
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