The Continuum of Community Involvement
There are those who talk of 'community involvement' as a better means of manipulating people - ie of getting them to do what the external agents have already decided they should do. This can be done more or less crudely. When done well the community will believe that it has freely chosen to do what it is now doing. This is 'elegant power'. When done badly the community will sabotage the external agenda by being highly 'unco-operative'. There are those who talk of 'community involvement' as a means of engaging people such that they take more control of their own lives. In this case the external agent enables the community to decide for itself what it wants to do, make action plans, and carry them out successfully. The external task in this case is facilitation and the agent will have succeeded when his services are no longer required. Between the extremes of manipulation and community control as outlined above there are many options. They are listed in the following table. The most suitable approach will depend on the circumstances eg if a tower block goes on fire then it is probably best that people allow themselves to be crudely and urgently manipulated by the firemen. If the problem is petty crime and vandalism in that same tower block it may be best for the tower block community to figure out its own solutions, perhaps in partnerhip with the police or the social workers who might help to facilitate consultation between neighbours.
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