Essay and Reflection on “Community Analysis and Organization” by Saul D. Alinsky

Essay and Reflection on “Community Analysis and Organization” by Saul D. Alinsky

 

1. It has been reported that sociological practice can be defined as a sociological focus in which sociological theory, methods, and findings are made use of to lead to positive changes in the society, thus, involving practical skills and application in order to make a difference in the world (Stolley, 2005, p. 229). It involves two kinds of practice, namely, applied and clinical sociological practice. Clinical sociology involves the direct intervention activities of sociologists in operating from a sociological perspective that examines both normative and deviant   behaviors, as cultural expressions, and sees problems in the society as consequences of social arrangements (Rebach and Bruhn, 2001, p. 1), thus, its practice involves the similar work of psychologists, also being called clinicians and perceived as therapists and social workers. They have additional credentials as mediators, marriage and family therapists or counselors, organizational or management consultants, and policy experts that build on information through in-depth interviewing, focus group techniques, case histories, biographies and autobiographies (Rebach and Bruhn, 2001, p. 8). As clinical sociology involves identifying and quantifying interventions, applied sociology involves any use of a client-centered approach or sociological perspective and/or its tools in the understanding of, intervention in, and/or enhancement of social life (Price, 2004), thus, involving theories and concepts and applying it to situations. It has been emphasized that a probable way of escalating the practice of applied sociology is to educate students to document, investigate and assess the application process (DeMartini, 1984).    

 

2. I believe that the article has been successful in emphasizing that all the members in the community, along with the organizations that they are affiliated with are responsible in providing solutions to all the problems in the community. It has also pointed out that the major social forces responsible for keeping all the members of the community in harmony and in coordination with another are also the primary determinants of how all the issues and problems faced by the whole community will be given attention, priority, and solution. Based on the article, I was able to realize that both the church (or any religious affiliations) of the members of the community and the community organizations, including the labor groups have been responsible for keeping the members of the community more organized and in cooperation with one another. The roles and responsibilities assumed by the leaders and persons in authority in both organizations, being influential to all the members play significant niches in the community, thus, making the whole community much more integrated and coordinated.

 

3. Alinsky’s work described what the people of the Stock Yards of Chicago had done in order to help organize and put in to order their whole community. He emphasized and described that for the community, two elemental social institutions are accountable for serving as a foundation of any successful community organization, namely, the Catholic Church and organized labor. These two social forces serve up to be the representatives of the people of the community, and possess the desirable strength to make significant changes in the lives of the members of the community observable and possible. The author indicated that the members of the community remain to be both the members of the church and all the other organized labor unions in the community, thus, uniting, organizing, coordinating, and affiliating one another to work together in their common aim to provide a healthy, happy, and secured life they all deserve. In this sense, the work of Alinsky helps the readers of the article to realize the importance of the coordination and cooperation of the members of, what we can say, opposing groups in the community. But with the article, it can be realized that working together is highly and significantly possible. Therefore, as an agent of social change and applied sociology, Alinsky was successful in imparting knowledge and information to all the readers regarding what can be done in order to improve the society in terms of providing the necessary solutions to its various problems.

 

4. The model of Alinsky provides realization to its readers that the highly possible integration and collaboration of the members of the Catholic Church and the organized labor unions of the Stock Yard community in Chicago may be applied to other communities. Based on this model, I believe that this can be used in order to organize groups that would help fight crimes in the community. Because both the members of the Catholic Church and organized labor unions will be responsible for implementing strategies, particularly, policies, I believe that their collaboration would be most successful in helping to solve the increasing crime rates in the society. This is because such organized labor unions can be the ones responsible for the arrest and punishment of the law offenders, while the members of the Catholic Church can be the ones in-charge of activities and initiatives that would help foster behavioral and personal changes in the offenders. As such, simultaneous change and modification of the society can be achieved, not only through general interventions, but also through individual and personal interventions as well.

 

References

Alinsky, S.D. (1984). “Community Analysis and Organization”. Clinical Sociology Review, 2: 25-34.  

DeMartini, J.R. (1984). “Applied Sociology as Knowledge Utilization: A Meeting Ground for Theory and Practice”. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (San Antonio, Texas, August 27-31, 1984), 1-13.

Price, J. (2004). Applied Sociology – Topics, Terms, Tools and Tasks, 1st ed. Wadsworth.

Rebach, H.M. and Bruhn, J.G. (2001). Handbook of Clinical Sociology, 2nd ed. New York: Plenum Publishers.

Stolley, K.S. (2005). The Basics of Sociology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.  

 

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