The Organizationally Dependent Community

Abstract

We introduce the concept "organizationally dependent" community to describe communities that lack the basis for developing attachment through informal social integration and in which the primary source of attachment is participation in formal organizations created to protect the community from outside threats. Neighborhoods experiencing residential renovation are examples of organizationally dependent communities. Because renovators are newcomers to their neighborhoods they cannot rely on informal social networks to solve neighborhood problems, but they can become involved in formal organizations to do so. This type of participation becomes an important source of neighborhood attachment. Data testing this hypothesis, generally, are consistent with it.