Community Development, Theories, and Principles (Essay Sample)

Community Development, Theories, and Principles
Name
Institution
Community Development, Theories, and Principles
Abstract
This paper seeks to critically discuss the understanding of community development, theories, and principles and examine the importance of social work when it comes to community development. Clarifying the meaning of community development involves paying attention to the term community and development. Thus, the paper first provides an overview of both terms and outlines the essential objective of community development based on community participation organization and capacity building. Additionally, this entry examines the role of social work theories and principles in social work practice and community development. In particular, the paper links the concept of community development with the collective response to the social demographic change and how it can be used by social workers to achieve social change in Aotearoa New Zealand. The paper covers what is argued as the key principles that underpin proper community development practices in the country within the formal setting of indigenous Mauri and other emerging communities.
Introduction
The twentieth century is making a significant turn toward community development as well as the value of community social work. The community is of critical importance to the lives of people, which fundamentally prompts the needs of having the skill, abilities, and knowledge of community practices. Community development is essentially the most practical framework for the social worker who is seeking for a change of the community and individual in a given society. According to Hugman (2010), the fundamental objective of a social work professional is to promote a social change and to solve problems in the human relationship while strengthening and empowering the liberation of people to enhance their well-being. It focuses on the centrality of the oppressed individuals in the society with the objective to overcome externally imposed social problems (Hettne, 2009). Accordingly, community development assumes great importance in various aspect of social work; correspondingly, social work shares the doctrines of community development.
The most commonly held meaning of community refers to people who are living in a given location and have a face-to-face contact with one another. Based on this assertion, Craig et al. (2011) classify a social community as a pre-industrial formation in a situation where face-to-face is possible whether in rural or tribal societies. However, according to Arensberg (2017), the new society has emerged with the changes in industrial society and today; people are more and more deflecting from face-to-face contact and moving to web community, social media community, and online groups. For this research, the term community refers to a place-based conceptualization of community with common interest and with similar social changes. Precisely, this is based on the theory of human ecology, which explains that a community is more of a structure of the relationship through which a place-based population meets the daily need of that given structure (Matarrita-Cascante & Brennan, 2012). In other words, for a community to function, the compositional factors, which include the structural aspects of growth such as poverty environment, housing, and their physical location, are essential.
Therefore, community development encompasses the diverse effort from different people within a place-based community to correct the distortion and mitigate the consequences of a historical pattern that affect that given community. On this note, Kenny (2011), asserts that community development been identified as a core social work method to work with the place-based community. In particular, the community that is marginalized, disenfranchised and faces with numerous social issues mostly from unjust policies and planning at a local, state, national and global levels (Ife, 2013). Precisely, the failure of social democratic to address human needs has become apparent from the wide gap between the rich and the poor, increase in poverty levels, crimes, hunger, and social unrest in the different part of the world. Correspondingly Kieran et al., (2015) view community development as a process, not a job that characterizes a given perspective about the world.
Markedly, social work has, over the years become a fundamental tool in addressing such human suffering and injustices particularly through charity. However, according to Ife (2013), these efforts seem not to work, as such, community development solutions are needed to address the most contemporary social issues. Kenny (2011) argues that community development, therefore, is a means of empowering the place-based communities to take a viable collective control for their development. The primary focus of such approach is to help communities take an independent decision when it comes to addressing the needs that they know affect them the most (Weil et al., 2012). Notably, social work as a field plays a critical role in ensuring that the community is empowered to take autonomous actions that transform them and their future generation.
Relationship between Social Work Theories and Principles
Social principles are fundamental in defining community development in action. The relationship between social work theories and principle is often termed as praxis, which essentially provides a foundation of community development (Westoby and Dowling, 2013). According to Eversole (2015) when one brings the term theory and practice together, the link between explanation, assumption and everyday activities and strategies are brought to light. In this sense, when one brings theory and practice in community development, the theoretical understanding of how the society work and how the community member would like it to work is brought together, which created a strategy that can help address the needs of the community (Ledwith, 2011). 
Role of Social Work Theories and Principles in Social Work Practice and Community Development
Healy (2014) has examined numerous theories, framework, and perspective in social work. He has particularly emphasized on the practice framework, three of which he noted are useful in community development. The three are an ecosystem, community change model and strength perspective (Kieran et al, 2015). The ecosystem perspective is perhaps the most used practice perspective in social work. In essence, this is because of its ability to provide a conceptual lens through which social structure can be viewed and analyzed. Using the concept of ecological perspective, theorists Pincus and Minahan developed a social system theory, which fundamentally underpins the knowledge development of social work development (Teater, 2014). System theory focuses on the interaction within multiple social systems. Such includes the interpersonal relationships between family, friends and the community at large. According to Healy (2014), the enduring popularity of system theories in social work and practice is directly attributed to the long-standing mission of social work to understand and respond to people needs and their environment.
Nevertheless, although the ecosystem perspective is a useful way to know the elements and dynamics involved in social work practice, it is not particularly helpful when it comes to interventions. Such is achieved through the use of practice models. Thus, the practice model according to Healy (2014) refers to the social work principles that guide intervention. In social work, these include the ideas that are intended to help a social work professional to clarify a complex social problem that the community face. Through such models, a social worker can use his or her professional objectivity and judgment to address each unique situation that the community is experiencing. Practice model is useful in differentiating between the forms that a community work intervention could take. The strength perspective represents the traditional perspective of social work, one that has been lost over the years but recently reclaimed to meet modern demands. Regarding strength perspective, everything that a social worker profession does is based on the principle of helping the community discover a disturbing problem by exploring and exploiting their strengths rather than focusing on the social issue.
Social Work Theories and Principles of Social Work and Community Development in Aotearoa New Zealand
Aotearoa New Zealand is unique regarding its physical location and its unique history. The community development practice in Aotearoa operates in a bicultural context. The first is the pre-colonization where Maori, the indigenous people developed a model of society, which was communal, and held a sacred relationship with the colonizing power, Britain (Communities, 2010). In particular, the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti O Waitangi) was established as a constitutional document aimed to preserve and protect Maori as the indigenous population while validating others who came after Maori (O'Malley et al., 2011). Secondly, as the process of colonization developed in 1800, the immigrants from the United Kingdom brought with them models of care and support for the vulnerable members of the community (Aimers & Walker, 2013). Groups were established for this support, mostly under the auspices of the church (Aimers & Walke, 2016).
Accordingly, the Treaty of Waitangi has a critical relevance when it comes to the practice of community development. In particular, because it related to Maori self-determination and ways in which the treaty is applied in the everyday decision making of community organizations. The key principle in Aotearoa context is to have an understanding of the indigenous framework, which involves understanding the treaty of Waitangi (Kieran et al....