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Reconcilable Differences? Human Diversity, Cultural Relativity, and Sense of Community

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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

Sense of community (SOC) is one of the most widely used and studied constructs in community psychology. As proposed by Sarason in (The Psychological sense of community: prospects for a community psychology, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1974), SOC represents the strength of bonding among community members. It is a valuable component of community life, and it has been linked to positive mental health outcomes, citizen participation, and community connectedness. However, promotion of SOC can become problematic in community psychology praxis when it conflicts with other core values proposed to define the field, namely values of human diversity, cultural relativity, and heterogeneity of experience and perspective. Several commentators have noted that promotion of SOC can conflict with multicultural diversity because it tends to emphasize group member similarity and appears to be higher in homogeneous communities. In this paper, we introduce the idea of a community-diversity dialectic as part of praxis and research in community psychology. We argue that systematic consideration of cultural psychology perspectives can guide efforts to address a community-diversity dialectic and revise SOC formulations that ultimately will invigorate community research and action. We provide a working agenda for addressing this dialectic, proposing that systematic consideration of the creative tension between SOC and diversity can be beneficial to community psychology.

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Notes

  1. However, in remaining true to the existing literature, we use the terms and abbreviations favored by the authors when citing their work. Thus, for, example, when we talk about Brodsky’s et al. work with multiple psychological senses of community, we use the term PSOC to honor the meaning it has in their work.

  2. Groups and communities are similar yet not identical constructs in social and community psychologies. Although the social psychological theories discussed in this section were developed with group behavior in mind, we assume that the general concepts operate in much the same manner within community contexts.

  3. It is important to note that rather than being seen as divisive, the formation of subcommunities (student groups) was encouraged and viewed as a positive resource by the macrocommunity (a job training and education center). We will explore the critical meaning that membership in multiple communities has in the community-diversity dialectic later in the paper.

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Acknowledgments

Preparation of this manuscript was supported by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (K23-MH65439) and the University of South Carolina Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies. Funding for data collection in northern Uganda was provided by the University of South Carolina Walker Institute and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Thanks to staff and clients of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, the USC Department of Psychology, our community partners, research assistants, research participants in South Carolina, and the many communities in northern Uganda that participated in this study. Thanks to Suzanne Swan, University of South Carolina, Department of Psychology, for comments on an early draft of this manuscript.

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Townley, G., Kloos, B., Green, E.P. et al. Reconcilable Differences? Human Diversity, Cultural Relativity, and Sense of Community. Am J Community Psychol 47, 69–85 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9379-9

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