城市社区建设中的居民自治研究述评

当前推进国家治理体系及治理能力现代化的进程中,在基层社区内形成民主管理,社区事务的治理以居民自治为主、多方参与,具有重要意义。通过整理我国城市社区居民自治的研究文献,从主体视角和机制视角分析了城市社区居民自治现状。概括了党政机关、自治组织和社区居民在居民自治中的不同作用,分析了社区居民自治中政治机制、法律机制和文化机制的作用。目前的居民自治研究主要从宏观着眼,为我国城市社区居民自治指明了道路,但具体的可操作的方法并不多。     

加强社区治理体系建设 推动社会治理重心向基层下移

加强社区治理体系建设,推动社会治理重心向基层下移,需要加强党委领导、发挥政府主导,鼓励和支持社会各方面参与,以及挖掘社区工作者的智慧和才能,方能实现政府治理和居民自治的良性互动,政府主导和多元参与的共建共治共享格局。     

权力结构变迁下的城市社区治理问题研究

创新城市社区治理体系是推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要环节。以"单位制"为基础的城市社区类型解体后,取而代之以"街居制"为主导的城市社区类型,城市社区治理中的权力类型从单一转向多元。如何在多元化的权力碰撞过程中实现善治目标值得考虑。有必要对我国城市社区治理中行政权力的作用、社区自治的理想与现实、社会组织的定位、居民委员会的性质进行分析,就城市社区治理的法治路径提出建议。     

论新时代城市基层社区治理模式的路径选择

党的十九大报告提出了新时代我国要加强社区治理体系建设,推动社会治理重心向基层下移,发挥社会组织作用,实现政府、社会、居民三者之间的良性互动。只有转变治理理念、加强社区基层党组织建设与核心引领作用、扶持社会组织积极参与社区治理、提高治理的信息化水平和文化教化水平,才能在新时代基层社区治理模式上不断创新,推动共建共治共享社会治理格局的实现。     

打造社区社会治理新格局的思考——以烟台市的实践为例

结合烟台市近年来社区社会治理取得的成效,发现在社会治理过程中存在社区共享意识有待于提升,社区共建体制有待完善,居民参与共治的意识有待增强等问题。建议从加强和改善党的全面领导,充分发挥基层党组织战斗堡垒作用,加强社区治理体系建设、构建多元互动的社区共建共治共享平台,探索"参与式"治理模式、促进社区居民自我管理的良性运行,以社区居民需求为导向、构建社区认同系统四方面着手打造社区社会治理新格局。     

农村社会变迁与新社区自治的制度—目标构建——以浙江省杭州和嘉兴市农村为例

农村新社区是我国农村社会变迁中乡村治理的基本结构和社会民主化建设的基本单元,是在一定地域范围和规模基础上的自治载体,是乡政村治模式的组织形式和制度条件。本文以浙江省社会主义新农村建设为基础,分析了农村新社区自治的制度环境,并从支持系统、机制创新、功能结构运行、权限实现等方面提出了农村新社区自治的制度安排设想,初步设定了农村新社区自治的目标框架。农村新社区自治是党的十六届六中全会上提出,并在党的十七大继以发展的新农村建设的重要目标之一,是我国城市社区自治实践向农村的延伸和拓展,是农村新社区基本治理结构的探索和基层政治民主化建设的一个创举。本文以浙江省杭州和嘉兴市为例,就农村社会变迁过程中新社区自治的制度和目标构建进行了探讨。     

浅谈多元主体下的美国城市社区治理及其启示

美国城市社区治理历史悠久,积累了大量的理论与实践经验,是以公民自治为基础,地方政府、非政府组织、企业等多社区精神的培育等,都为我国社区治理实现公民自治的路径选择提供了有益启示。     

权力、冲突与社区自治的构建——对天津开发区TF社区的个案研究

中国现代化正处在一个以城市化为主导的新阶段，城市的社区以价值认同和自主精神形成了实现公共理性的良好氛围，成为市民塑造现代人格的公共平台。为了解鲜活的新型社区及真实的社区治理过程，本文首先通过文献考察了解社区自治研究的现状；对11位与TF社区相关人员作了深入访谈，记录了他们对社区自治的态度，结合观察，TF社区发生的系列事件，了解社区事务的过程与实践，概括出社区是如何受正式、非正式权力的影响，社区冲突对社区自治进程的影响。     

作为国家治理单元的社区——对城市社区建设运动过程中居民社区参与和社区认知的个案研究

本文分析了不同居民群体社区参与的具体过程,提出了4种参与类型:福利性参与、志愿性参与、娱乐性参与和权益性参与。通过对居民社区参与过程和社区认知的探讨,作者认为,社会转型和社区建设运动背景下的中国城市社区是为了解决单位制解体后城市社会整合与社会控制问题的自上而下建构起来的国家治理单元,而不是一个可以促进公共领域形成或市民社会发育的地域社会生活共同体。     

创新“城中村”社区治理的对策思考——以泉州市城东片区四社区为研究对象

创新"城中村"社区治理工作,是有效推进社会管理的重要内容。近年来泉州市在"城中村"社区治理方面进行了积极探索,并取得明显成效。要实现以"城中村"社区治理工作的创新推动城市管理创新,泉州应该在社区治理主体多元化、社区工作方式民主化、居民保障水平提高、社区管理者素质提升、社区文化建设加强等五个方面继续推进各种有益探索。     

Community Connections: Social Capital and Community Success1

This article examines the impact of two types of community social capital—ties between civic organizations formed through shared members and ties between residents formed through socializing in local gathering places—on residents’ subjective appraisals of community success. Community social capital studies tend to focus on the first of these types of ties, networks of civic engagement, while the second, gathering place networks, has received relatively little scholarly attention. Studying both allows me to assess the formal and informal arenas of community sociability, providing a more thorough understanding of social capital and community life. I assess the effects of community‐level social capital networks on the individual‐level experience of residing in the community using survey data on 9,962 residents from 99 small towns in Iowa. This rich data set allows me to avoid two shortcomings common in social capital research: I construct genuine network measures of social capital (rather than infer network structure from community attributes) and conduct multi‐level analyses (rather than rely on disaggregation). My findings indicate both types of social capital are positively and significantly associated with resident ratings of community success, suggesting community networks—in both the formal and informal sectors—have important consequences for small towns and their residents.     

Community Work:

This article presents a typology of models of community work currently extant in the United Kingdom. It focuses on clarifying theoretical points through analysis of the currently most widely accepted contemporary models in use throughout the UK: community care; community organization; community development; social/community planning; community education; and community action, and developing models of feminist community work, and black and anti-racist community work. The typology presented is organized on a continuum from models focused on ''care'' to those focusing on ''action.'' Each model is analyzed in relation to the following characteristics: strategy; workers' main roles; and typical agencies and examples of work. Selected critical key texts treating each model are documented. Discussion highlights similarities and differences among the models particularly with regard to techniques and skills and ideological traditions to provide a framework to understand community work practice.     

Linking Systems and Community Services:

A panel of experts from the legal, medical, adult protective services, criminal justice, and family counseling/mental health professions discuss, in depth, two difficult elder abuse case studies. The goal is to showcase as "interdisciplinary team approach" in developing solutions to the problems of victims of abuse and their abusers.     

Linking Professionalism and Community Organization:

A resurgence of community practice requires that the historical tension between professionalism and community organization be resolved. This paper proposes a scholar/advocate approach to forge a link between professionals and community organizations. The scholar/advocate approach facilitates social change, provides an opportunity for social work professionals to participate in community organizing, and empowers grassroots groups. The benefits and limitations of this method for professionals and community groups are illustrated by its application with three community organizations concerned about the urban poor and homeless. The paper argues that it is time for a resurgence of community-based social work and the development of new methods to attract students to this traditional, and still relevant, field.     

Community Care: Relationships and Control

Analysis of the relationships available to people with learning difficulties has received much attention in recent literature and has also become the focus of work undertaken by service personnel. This paper presents an analysis of networks of people with a learning difficulty in Wales and illustrates the paucity of close relationships in people's lives. It is argued that community care involves the removal of custodial forms of social control and their replacement by mechanisms which place greater emphasis on relationships as a form of imposing sanctions on individuals. In an attempt to assist the move to improve networks the authors argue the need to develop a theoretical understanding of the social processes by which individuals are excluded and as a result inform the means by which individuals may be included.     

Carl Milofsky: Towards an Institutional Theory of Community and Community Associations: A Review

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Community Foundations: A Growing Resource for Community Development

Like many nonprofit organizations, community development corporations (CDCs) rely on various sources of funding and support for their activities in poor and distressed neighborhoods. Funders often include the federal government, state and local government agencies, financial institutions, and philanthropic organizations. The author explains how community foundations are different from other philanthropic organizations and describes the various mechanisms that community foundations use to support community development. She suggests that there is a natural fit between the purpose of community foundations and the philosophy of community development, concluding that it is important for CDCs, as well as other nonprofit organizations, to understand how community foundations are different from other philanthropic organizations so that they may better position themselves to take advantage of the many resources that community foundations bring to their communities.     

Modelling Community Work:

This paper argues that the most useful aspect of Rothman's development of his models for community practice back in 1968 was his specification of the variables which he used to differentiate between ''three important orientations to deliberate or purposive community change in contemporary American communities, both urban and rural, and overseas'' (Rothman, 1970, p. 21). While Rothman referred to these three orientations as Models A, B, and C, my contention has been that they would be described more accurately as approaches to practice which are adopted as the outcome of modelling activity using the variables Rothman identified. Indeed it is to the point that Rothman now refers to these as ''modes.'' Yet, ironically, this core feature of Rothman's work on modelling community practice is largely overlooked in subsequent literature on models even though it is this aspect which is an invaluable tool for practice, especially for students embarking on placement or on their first job. This paper starts from the premise that a model is a simplification of reality that is intended to order and clarify our perception of that reality while still encapsulating its essential characteristics. To have analytical value a model should specify key variables to be considered in assessing a situation in order to develop and evaluate possible action plans. Thus a model should enable prediction of likely outcomes if a particular plan of action is pursued. The paper starts, therefore, by refining the variables identified by Rothman in order to frame them as a model that can hold Rothman's Three Core Modes of Community Intervention. It is proposed that, with some refinement to take account of the insights from further theoretical and practice developments, this can also serve as a simple diagnostic tool to enable analysis by contemporary community workers. The outcome such analysis seeks is the specification of a basic orientation to practice and thus to the clarification of the strategies, roles and skills that are likely to be most useful given the particular approach chosen. The paper indicates how different theoretical perspectives, as well as approaches and strategies that have been identified since Rothman's original work, inform or fit into the proposed four-square model. In short the paper illustrates how an approach analogous to that employed by Rothman is still essential for reflexive community work.