This study aims to develop a socially and culturally sensitive community building model suited to urban residential areas. It also hopes to provide valuable data and informations necessary for community social practitioners working in urban residentia...
This study aims to develop a socially and culturally sensitive community building model suited to urban residential areas. It also hopes to provide valuable data and informations necessary for community social practitioners working in urban residential areas.
To achieve this goal, I developed a community building model based on various theories of community social work and applied it to a newly established urban residential area. I then analyzed a process of trust formation among those who were engaged in the community building as the model was put into practice. The proposed model was subsequently modified based on the results.
This new community building model is designed to strengthen primarily community empowerment during the community practice. The model is built on a theoretical framework emphasizing seven principles. It combined and modified different community practice models separately proposed by Rothman, Kretzman & McKnight and Weil & Gamble, respectively. Such things as community building' goals and purposes, the context of the urban residential areas and others have been taken into consideration for the project. The entire process was divided into three tasks including planning, organization and implementation.
The proposed model has been applied at K village of Y city in Korea under the project name "Making Our Village Happy". The experiment was carried out for 1 year and 5 months from Aug. 2010 to Dec. 2011 and four projects were launched during the period.
To explore the effectiveness of the model, a research was conducted according to the methodology employing a grounded theory developed by Saiki Greig Hill Sigeko(⼽⽊クレィゲㇶ滋子ㇽ). The research focused on the process of trust formation in the community during the implementation of the model. 143 concepts, 47 subcategories and 19 categories were identified through an open coding. In addition two paradigms were also identified, which has subsequently been defined as [trust forming process] and [trust growing process]. The research produced the following results:
First, the research has found that [trust forming process] leads to [trust growing process]. That is, the trust forming process continues to evolve among the participants. The attitudes and behaviors of the participants in the previous stage tended to improve as they had influence on the next stages. Secondly, the [trust forming process] creates cooperative relations and a project implementation basis within a group through 'rules-setting efforts.' It also expedites a process of intimate subgroups. Thirdly, the [trust growing process] is a process that directs its focus on organizational balance by way of professional intervention. The process helps to form reciprocal relationships among the participants, and to maintain and expand the project in organizational restructuring.
The study results indicate that urban residential areas' sociocultural characteristics in Korea tend to produce a lack of participation as well as inadequate leadership among the residents, which slowed down the progress of the project. Hence, the community building placed an emphasis on a trust forming process in order to change the problems.
On the basis of these analyses, this study modified the initial community building model and subsequently proposed a new 'Community Building Model in Urban Residential Areas'. This model focuses on strengthening human resources, aiming to foster democratic leadership, and to establish trust forming relationship among the residents. This process was designed to speed up planning and practice activities around small groups in the community by way of organizing. Through this process, the level of trust could be enhanced among members, which leads to an increase in trust in the entire community. The process eventually strengthens community capability.
This study proposed a model for community building practice in urban residential areas, and actually implemented the model. In doing so, it provided an in-depth understanding with regard to the dynamics of community organizing and change. It is hoped that this study could be utilized as an important reference frame for upcoming researchers and practitioners in community social work. Considering the paucity of theoretical as well as practical data in the subject of community building in Korea, the study should be regarded as a step forward, though small.