Toward A person-Centered Theory of Community

Abstract

The idea of community has pivoted on the twin aspects of (a) felt experience of relationship and belonging, and (b) human collectivity organized around living needs or tasks. After examining the meaning of community, generically, ways of studying the phenomenon are considered-with particular attention to the blending of "inside/ outside" (empathic and objective) modes of inquiry and knowing vividly depicted by Robert Redfield. Accounts of the kibbutzim also help to lay the ground for the two further main parts of this article. One part is a descriptive-empirical study of a large-group workshop on community formation and process in which the author took part. (Data were gathered via questionnaire at the end of the workshop from about 100 participants.) The other main part advances an initial person-centered theory of community, summed up in seven core propositions. In ending, the article highlights ethical implications of the conception advanced, and calls for a recentered focus on community.