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Community Self Management, Empowerment and Development

Sociology
Lecture Notes

Text only version of this document
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16 Elements of Strength
Phil Bartle
แปลโดย เจนจิรา กาญจนจารุรัตน

The shortest distance is not always a straight line
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What makes a community, organization or family strong?
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When organisations, families and communities are more and better organised, they are stronger. When they more resemble a rational, formal organisation, they have greater capacity to achieve what their members want them to achieve.

If we want to strengthen communities, families or organizations, how can we know when we have succeeded, or to what extent?  As scientists engaged in social research, how do we measure the strengthening of them, when they are increasing their capacities, or becoming more empowered? Unfortunately, we do not have a little electronic metre that, when it moves from 62 to 79, we can say that strength has increased by 17 points.

We can analyse the concept of "strength," "power" or "capacity," as applied to organisations, families or communities, look at its various components, and identify a set of observations that will indicate to us that some empowerment or increase in capacity has taken place.

The sixteen elements are: altruism; common values; communal services; confidence; communications; context; information; intervention; leadership; networking; organisation; political power; skills; trust; unity; and wealth.  These are somewhat more comprehensive than Weber’s five elements of bureaucratic strength, but identifying them is based on the same sociological principles used by Weber.

Descriptions of the Sixteen Elements:
 

Empowerment goes well beyond political or legal permission to participate in the national political
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................................. Altruism: Altruism is the proportion of, and degree to which, individuals are ready to
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Common Values: Common values as a factor of organisational or community strength is the
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Communal Services: For human settlements, these are facilities and services (such as
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Communications: Within a community, and between itself and outside, communication
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Confidence: While expressed in individuals, how much confidence is shared among the
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Context (Political and Administrative): An organisation or community will be stronger,
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Information: More than just having or receiving unprocessed information, the strength of the
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Intervention: What is the extent and effectiveness of animation (mobilising, management
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Leadership: Leaders have power, influence, and the ability to move the community. The more
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Networking: It is not just what you know, but also who you know that can be a source of
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Organisation: The level of organisation in a community is the degree to which different
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Political Power: The power of a community or organisation is the degree to which it can participate in national and district decision making.  This relates to the political dimension of culture. Just as individuals have varying power within a community, so communities and organisations have varying power and influence within the district and nation.  The more political power and influence that a community or organisation can exercise, the higher level of capacity it has.
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Skills: The ability, manifested in individuals, that will contribute to the organisation of the community
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Trust: Trust is the degree to which members of the organisation or community trust each other,
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Unity: Unity is a shared sense of belonging to a known entity (the group composing the
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Wealth: Wealth is the degree to which the organisation or community as a whole – in contrast
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See Economic Dimension.
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16 Elements of Strength
. The Meaning of Culture
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Updated: 2007.06.03.