Community Power and a Typology of Social Issues

• Published in: Social forces 1959-10, Vol.38 (1), p.29-32
• Main Authors: Barth, Ernest A. T., Johnson, Stuart D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Classification; Collective decision making; Communities; Community Power; Community relations; Community Research; Community Structure; Decision making; Fluence; Global Local Relationship; Influence; Leadership; Respect; Social issues
• ISSN: 0037-7732; 1534-7605
• DOI: 10.2307/2574013

In the study of community decision making, little attention has been given to analysis of the conditions under which influencing behavior occurs. According to Rossi (See SA 7017), one set of such conditions involves issue content. Failure to consider the impact of issue content on the selection of influentials has led to problems in building models adequate to describe structures of community influence. In a pilot project, the attempt to derive a typology of community issues based on institutional categories was found inadequate. It was concluded that 2 major requirements are of primary importance to view the dimensions along which community issues are to be typed: (a) the dimensions must be generic to all issues, & (b) variations in each dimension must be theoretically relatable to variations in patterns of influencing behavior. Concern, here, is with: (i) the types of community structures involved in the flow of influence with respect to a range of issues, (ii) the direction of the flow of influence on any issue, & (iii) the direction of the flow of communications around a range of issues. Reanalysis of the pilot data led to development of the following dimensions, treated from the point of view of community leaders: (1) unique-recurrent dimension, (2) salient-nonsalient to leadership, (3) salient-nonsalient to community publics, (4) effective action possible- effective action impossible, & (5) local-cosmopolitan dimension. Directions for future res steps are suggested. It is expected that diff types of issues will exhibit varying patterns of influence & communications flow for the several stages of issue life cycle. A classification of community issues based on the dimensions proposed will make it possible to control one of the major variables in the study of influence systems. H. K. Schwarzweller.