This paper presents the theoretical-conceptual and methodological bases that allow promotion of sustainable and autonomous changes in the complex relational universe in twenty-first century Spain. It takes as its starting point the methodological and participative processes linked to social work with communities, focused on a local strategic development model that is comprehensive and centered on community empowerment. It presents the results of research aiming to characterise communities’ practices locally. This is linked to Spain´s communities social work presented in the form of typologies. The analysis of the communities´ practices permits identification of the ideal necessary characteristics that the experiences of community action must have in terms of good practices to promote local coexistence through citizen participation.
El artículo presenta las bases teórico-conceptuales y metodológicas que permiten impulsar cambios sostenibles y autónomos en el complejo universo relacional en España en el siglo XXI a partir de procesos metodológicos y participativos vinculados con un trabajo social con comunidades centrado en el modelo de desarrollo local estratégico, integral y centrado en el empowerment comunitario. Se presentan los resultados de una investigación orientada a caracterizar las prácticas comunitarias en el ámbito local vinculadas con el trabajo social con comunidades en España y que son presentados a modo de tipologías. El análisis de las prácticas comunitarias permite identificar las características idóneas que deben tener las experiencias de acción comunitaria en su consideración de buenas prácticas en el fomento de la convivencia local a través de la participación ciudadana.
Unemployment became principle social problem in Spain politically and economically: public opinion surveys rank unemployment as number one amongst the Spaniard’s preoccupations. Spain is about to reach at six million unemployed which is 25% of the active population. Since the beginning of the crisis, she has lost more than three million jobs, with the youth unemployment rate above 55% where almost two million families with all the members unemployed, 636,000 homes have no income, situations involving a huge risk of social exclusion (Garcia and Pastor,
The article presents two analyses, the first one focuses on the theoretical, methodological and empirical analysis about social work and community development, the second analysis, which is empirical is oriented towards building the indicators who allow to define good communities practices. in first place the epistemological, theoretical and conceptual framework with sustained community social work then the theoretical, conceptual and methodological basis that orient and mobilize toward social work with communities in Spain centering on a strategically local development model, integrated and focalized in the community empowerment are analyzed. In second place it presents the results of a research oriented towards characterizing the communities practices locally connected with social work with communities in Spain and are presented in typological mode. The analysis of the communities practices allow to identify the ideal characteristics, which must have community´s action experiences considering good practices in the promotion of local coexistence through citizen participation.
In Spain Social Work with communities has not been paid the same attention as other units (individuals, families and groups) in regard to its theorist construction and/or systematization of the practice in line with a professional exercise linked with the direct and individualized attention and as a consequence, social policies basically focused on the resolution of the difficult social situations on the individual and family scale, as it is noted in different researches in this subject in our country (Cuesta,
In the analysis of the theory in work with community accomplished by Taylor and Roberts (
The critical and radical Social Work, with roots as mentions Healy (
On the other hand, the social work with communities focalized on the “empowerment” and defense oriented helping the clients to overcome negative ratings and make them capable to be agents of change and influencing their problem solving (Solomon,
Finally, ecological approach (Goldstein,
But beyond these models, the truly important matter is that intervention and analysis integrate the theoretical and methodological approaches in a creative and innovative fashion and adapts them to the idiosyncrasy of the context and actors, moments/processes and sense/results of the professional action.
Linked to the described theoretical framework, it is necessary to highlight an operating conceptual theoretical framework of short-range that allows to form and endow meaning to the specifically community intervention: the non-directive theory (Batten,
a) achievement of an adequate internal cohesion (process), contributing that the groups and the organizations find channels of conciliation between objectives and necessities of individuals and groups, by means of strategies of dynamic of groups and intergroups, therefore, oriented towards the building relevant contexts; regaining confidences, developing innovation; creating solidarities, generating capacities and endogenous leaderships, therefore, a local development network; and
b) realization of actions inside a specific temporal framework, oriented towards the achievement of objectives (tasks), supporting the groups and organizations for obtaining an outreached productivity, by means of intergroup strategies and influence in the processes of tangible policies.
A conceptual theoretical framework that provides a community intervention model oriented towards transferring the formal knowledge to the people, group and the communities organization so that they acquire the capacities and necessary skills for: identify the causes of the discomfort or trigger events/outrageous/unjust; define the necessities and the opportunities, attributing deliberative meaning to the causes of the difficulties; look for participating solutions for their problems; evaluate and choose the most adequate, determine the processes of organization and action, execute what has been planned; evaluate the satisfaction degree in regard to the reached objectives and obtained social/politic changes, innovate future actions based on deliberative learning of the real one hoisted and systematize and evaluate the practice as the means of theoretical construction and transference of good practices results from the own social organizations-those called “think tanks”. That feedback between the theory, the practice and ethic, will provide an augmentation in the possibilities of social intervention as well (Ahmed-Mohamed,
The complex social realities demand integrated operations in the community development strategies, from local development with a clear-cut commitment of the profession with the local social development -from people- (Correll,
The local development in key strategy (Vázquez,
Contributing to the human development in the XXI century means enlarging the individuals´ alternatives so that they can enjoy of an appreciable standard of living and coexistence conditions, for that it will be necessary to develop human capacities, among which the ability to participate in the life of the community to which they belong. A participation linked with economic and social development, quality of life, integration of the micro and macro social realities (Max-Neef,
The progressive decentralization of the welfare institutions in Spain to administrative levels - competencies closer to citizens through Local Administrations suggests that the social policy locally has ceased to be residual to become a central area. This presupposes a reorganization of the Local Administrations, both in their internal projection and in their external relations with the social organizations and the lower territorial units. In this sense, it is not sufficient to think globally and act locally anymore - territorial and on line - but it is necessary, think locally and act globally and in virtual networks.
Nowadays, in coincidence with what indicated by Herrero and Castón (
In the current relational complex is necessary to undertake a social work with communities that plays for the social transformations, institutional and politics by means of the participative investigation action of the involved actors in particular and the citizens in general (Putnam,
From the existing analysis of the mechanism and participative practices in the municipal area in Spain we can distinguish associative based mechanisms (municipal Councils of citizens participation; Territorial or Sectorial Councils; service users Committees and local Development groups); processes and direct or deliberate practices (participative budgets, citizens juries or nucleus of participative intervention; citizens assemblies, neighborhood meetings, community or of services; referendum or popular consultation; demonstrations, strikes, boycott, satisfaction surveys; deliberative surveys, discussion groups...) and mixed (territorial strategically planning; agenda 21; council, forums or territorial assemblies, sectorial or of services; citizen´s platforms; territorial prospective workshops and services...).
From analysis of the researches about local participation (Colino and Del Pino,
Nowadays we clearly observe collective actions of protest in Spain by means of dramatization - “let´s go out to protest” - political contest through different forms or performances (strikes, concatenation, caceroladas, citizens concentrations, riots, collective embraces and nakedness, demonstration, occupying buildings, impediments of eviction, marches, pickets, etc,.) oriented towards sensitizing and exercise political, social and economical influence. Performances, as showed by Tilly and Tarrow (
In an effort for promoting conceptual clarity and permitting the professionals to introduce changes in a community, Rothman (
In practice in Spain we can check that the strategies - ideal type - have limited scope and incidence, predominating mixtures that cross community intervention strategies: social action and social planification; social action and social development and social planification and local development that we can synthesize in the following form:
a) Social Action / Social Planification. The social action associated with social planification is illustrated in organism (foundations, associations platforms, social movements, etc,) that defend social rights and/or specific collective interest (minors, elderly, migrants, etc,) by means of awareness campaigns, organization and mobilization for rights and against abuses, exposure in media of abuses executed by corporations and administrations utilization of pressure groups, boycotts, demonstrations, “escarches”, etc,. Together they undertake action linked with the social planification: utilizing research data and empirical documentation contrasted with basis and reasoned argument of statements and reports, programming the creation of communication channels appropriated for broadcasting the information intended for the collectives, gathering feedback, etc,. The action/planification with emphasis on social action are encountered in organizations oriented towards the social change of the systems (housing, health, education, employment, social services, etc,) but reports based on data and political analysis are needed to the incorporated in their work for balancing the tools and procedures of professionals and politician of the planification. In occasions the organizations take on a professional for realizing the assignments of defensive planification. On the contrary, the action / planification with emphasis on the social planification, is encountered in political actors or professional linked with the previous ones who utilize the results of researches and reports for introducing social reforms; in this way we can verify that the integration of the action strategy and planification are inseparable.
b) Social Action / Local Development. This approach aims to integrate the social action with the local development. The search for sociopolitical change, the elimination of the patriarchal society (feminist posture), the eradication of the power and the privileges of the few against the majority (social action): can be performed, by means of democratic processes, seeking consensus, delegating and rotating tasks, respecting and promoting the skills of the participants for the personal and local (local development) development. The social action is related to the citizen need, being the actor capable of launching initiatives for strengthening and creating environments that could lead to socioeconomic progress of the community.
c) Social Planification / Local Development. The organizations dedicated to decisions making on community welfare who incorporate citizen participation in their technical processes are clearly practical. As social planification, they disposed of the necessary technical resources for adoption of systematical decisions oriented towards objectives and very clear defined scenes (collection and allocation of funds, elaboration of programs, coordination of services and projects, etc.). On the other hand, as local development, it is conceived that the citizens must participate in improvement of the life conditions in communities, neighborhoods, villages, for having lively awareness of the importance of being development actors and not just consumers of goods and services. This mixture represents binding the activities of planning with dedicated energies for enrolling participants of the community, to train leaders, to perform multiple meetings and actions oriented towards achieving citizens participation (businessmen, entrepreneurs, professionals, merchants, clients, citizens, etc, etc,) in the process. Also observed in the process of improving the ability of certain minorities for their social integration economically. the achievement of the initiative and confidence in themselves is essential, but so it is the support of professional and corporations for optimal a accomplishment of the objectives of entrepreneurial empowerment: creation and consolidation of the cooperating companies and socially responsible with the communities. A compound which, leans towards planning, can be find in the councils or committees of citizen participation of the social protection systems (social services, health, employment, etc,) and in the different existing centers and services at the municipal level (social services centre, sanitary centre, etc,), whose function is to support the role of planning. Very often, these structures serve to legitimize community decisions adopted buy administrators of the local organizations and Corporations. The community intervention focuses on enrolling, guiding and keeping the members of those councils and committees together, being a model of local development more symbolic than real. At the other far end, we find ourselves with practices dedicated to promoting local initiative in neighborhoods and disadvantages community contexts, being necessary to collect data and utilize actively techniques of policies analysis and social planners to undertake effective local development.
In the following an approximation of typology of community practices at a local level linked with social work with communities in Spain from analysis of experiences (Foundation CEPAIM,
They are experiences related to the solidarity actions among neighbors driven and promoted by themselves for the purpose of exchanging personal and material support from community solidarity, among others we can highlight: time back, solidarity food market, Self Help Groups, common gardens, etc.
They pursue to meet population needs; strengthening the sentiment of neighborliness and cooperation creating network of Self Help; promoting community initiative with the participation of the citizens and strengthening the social cohesion. These experiences are based on the organized natural support systems, this being an informal social support format, where the people in their community make up an ecological system of everyday help playing complementary or interrelated roles, helping each other, providing support or doing various activities in the neighborhood or community. They presume an alternative to traditional formal support where the direction and the responsibility are dominated by institutions, organizations and/or professionals. Commissioning of these experiences can come from the professionals who detect necessity or problem and consider an intervention of this level adequate, or from the own interested persons initiative or the reference groups of the community. These experiences are booming, developing in the majority of cities as a response to the lack of resources and economic crises, being their main resources the participation and solidarity of the partakers.
In this sense two experiences can be mentioned, on the one hand, the experience of “fast food” (
Those experiences related to the citizen movements in favor of the defense of human and social rights and for a political system more just and equitable are included in them. Among others we can highlight the alliance for the defense of the public system of social services; Plataforma Democracia Real Ya (Platform of Real Democracy by now), Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (Platform of those Affected by Mortgage); Stop Desahucios (Stop Eviction); Mareas; 15M, etc.
They are intended to visualize the causes and consequences of social crisis, economic and social, support the persons in social difficulties situation and claim “new” decision makings connected with the deliberate and direct participation. One of the principle objectives of the community intervention is to influence political process in decision makings oriented towards generating “new” policies (Pastor and Sánchez,
Projects and interventions are part of this typology in socially and economically degraded neighborhoods by means of integral and transversal plans advanced from different administrations and organizations with an intense participation of the strategical actors. Specifically we refer to experiences with the Community Initiative URBAN (urban), LEADER (rural), community revitalization programs of peripheral neighborhoods; neighborhood mediation; rehousing; projects of training and training in improving habitat, etc.
They are programs who pursue to maximize and revitalize the economic strengths and opportunities, culturals and socials of the disadvantaged/degraded neighborhoods and territories by means of transversal, integral and intense actions in time from different areas (urban, touristic - cultural, local economic, etc.). Programs developed in territories in many cases peripheral but they coincide having high rates of social exclusion structural unemployment, insecurity and delinquency, as well as the absence of economy linked to the community development.
The development experiences are multiple, such as the Plan Especial de Reforma en Santa Adela de Granada (Special Plan of Reform in Santa Adela of Granada), the Plan Integral del Distrito V de Huelva (The Integral Plan of the Distric V of Huelva), the Plan Barrio de la Mina en Sant Adriá de Bes´sos (Barcelona), the Plan Estratético para Orcasitas (the Strategic Plan for Orcasitas), the Cañada Real Galiana, the Plan Comunitario de Sant Roc, badalona (the Community Plan of Sant Roc, Badalona), The Plan Comunitario Carabanchel Alto de Madrid (the Community Plan Carabanchel Alto of Madrid) or The urban Project Los Rosales in Murcia. They are community practices linked to specific territories oriented towards improvement of the life condition of the neighborhood habitants, propitiating social inclusion, the participation and fight against poverty and exclusion. The basic orientations that guide their processes are the community participation; the territorialized action for neighborhoods; common and participative diagnosis; common definition of objectives through neighborhood commissions and prioritizing processes and actions. Participatory action research constitutes the methodological basis that gives an overtone to the intervention process: awareness, the passage from the individual and the particular to the collective and complex, the development of shared spaces and interest centers, the conflict treatment, the work networks, the implication, combining the reflection with the action, the value of the experience, the search of empowerment and apprenticeship by means of the collective action. As a sign of this wide range of experience, some of the experiences from different backgrounds and environments are presented.
The Special Plan of Reform in Santa Adela of Granada, as urbanistic and community partner experience where the social work, the education in an open environment and intercultural mediation are being considered the central axis of a performance of great depth and complexity.
The Integral Plan of the Distrito V of Huelva promoted by the Fundación Valdocco (Valdocco Foundation) and the C3it of the University of Huelva (Local Employment Observatory of the University of Huelva) is based on the strategical planification and participative diagnosis. The participation and the work in partnership agreement, maximum distinctive feature of the plan, is articulated from six thematic forums about employment, health citizen participation, equality and family, environment and resources, education, having as a decision - making body the General Assembly. It is an employment of local governance and social volunteering and citizens in the fight against poverty and social exclusion.
The Transformation Plan of the Barrio de la Mina in Sant Adriá de Besós (Barcelona) provides us a consolidated transversal practice of territorial nature, it tends to articulate an integrated and comprehensive intervention for improving the habitability conditions as objective, community life and coexistence in the neighborhood. Besides its urbanistic objectives links with other axes: economic (promoting activities for the creation and promotion of self employment and energizing local shops commerce in the neighborhood), training and employment (generating opportunities of labor integration in equal conditions and developing actions of training adapted to necessities of the labor market), social and educative (promoting collaborative work and in network amongst all involved agents of the territory, and outside it, that acts directly or indirectly in the neighborhood and coordinating actions), conciliation of the work and family life (developing conciliation activities, promoting prevention programs and boosting playful - educative activities in the open environment for schoolchildren); coexistence (strengthening the social and local fabric from stairs communities, achieving community engagement with the common goods and mediating in the resolution of communities conflicts); participation (supporting the existing associative work in the neighborhood and favoring the interrelations between associative fabric and the public administration); public space and good citizenship (improving the effectiveness of the cleaning and maintaining urban furniture of the neighborhood and corresponsabiliting the community itself of the conservation of the public space, as common place and local coexistence).
The Community Plan of Sant Roc (neighborhood of Barcelona) is a scene of the participative process which is intended to structure the social fabric of the neighborhood by means of the formation and consolidation of work networks capable of allowing new manners of work towards improving the neighborhood . For its part, the Carabanchel Alto Community Plan, is an experience of community development appearing in 1992 and promotes the involvement of different entities for advancing an integral intervention from the areas of education, employment and health.
At last, mentioning the Strategic Plan for ORCASITAS, given its process and consolidated good practices and of the Cañada Real Galiana (old road of livestock that goes through Coslada, Rivas Vaciamadrid, Madrid and Getafe), Project that integrates the rural and the Urban in the periphery of Madrid whose main objective is to improve the quality of life and the welfare of the people who live in Cañada Real Galiana, principally gypsy ethnicity but general population as well. The specific objectives are work in six areas: social, health, education, employment, housing and neighborhood participation, in all sectors of the Cañada.
Services and projects oriented towards capturing, promoting and advancing solidarity values, voluntary action and the creation and drive of the associationism with a territorial local base. we refer to the programs that, primarily are driven by local government, are aimed at promoting and form volunteering; channeling voluntary actions to groups of population in socially difficult situations and the creation and impetus of the associations. From this perspective, a social cohesion function is conceived of volunteering, solidarity instrument and citizens participation mechanism. In Spain experiences as Schools of Public Participation; Services and Programs of Social Volunteering; Intercultural Community Schools, etc, are being developed.
Mentioning the project “La ciudad de los niños” (the City of the children) which is expanding in Madrid city and other small towns since year 2000 in order to promote social participation of the children through a Children Council who intervene in the city´s issues which affect the children. This experience has permitted to improve the citizenship education, to establish cooperation relation between the adults and children and propitiate tangible changes in the policies of the local institutions in favor of the children.
They are practices related to interventions that are implemented to answer the needs and demands that are posed by certain specific sectors of the population acting in a transversal manner in the territories. They are projects oriented towards the creation and impetus of associative networks of mutual aid to “common” problems; mediation projects linked to concrete areas due to being problematical to resolve (academic, neighborhood, intercultural, etc,.), prevention programs in risk situations, etc,. Practices that claim to articulate a work in network and coordinating for giving integral answer to the necessities which are proposed by certain sectors of population of a territory promoting its social inclusion from a transversal and integral perspective.
From educational ambit and as demonstration it is worth mentioning the community partner intervention program of “Nuestro Barrio” (Our Neighborhood), expanding in the el Goro of Telde (Canary Islands) or in the School “La Paz” in the neighborhood of La Milagrosa in Albacete
From a sectorial perspective the woman, health and violence Program by the city hall of Bilbao are supported by means of the strategical axis of the empowerment of the immigrant women of Bilbao, through the prevention of the Gender Based Violence (GBV), the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and the establishment of transmission channels in the communities of the participating women, sensitizing and informing the women at and from their environment. The intercultural diversity of the women is presented like transversal axes; preferential targeting in the more difficult access communities, like sub-Saharan and Maghreb communities and development and promotion of the self-esteem of the women, specially, the young women.
They are community project oriented towards promoting the intercultural interaction usually impulses by tight collaboration with social organizations and local governments. Their objective can be synthesized in: improving the tolerance value, coexistence in diversity, intercultural dialogue, equal opportunities and citizenship for the social cohesion; expanding community action for social, economical and cultural development in the areas linked by migration; reinforce and consolidate the intercultural dialogue as indispensable element for stimulating the integration process and, accordingly, contribute and improve the social cohesion. The methodology that centers performing such practices is essentially participative oriented towards what citizens express and intervene in the (re)construction of their territory, facilitating integration process and energizing experiences of cohesion and social organization.
They are multiple community practices associated with this typology in Spain, among others: Barcelona (Nou Barris), coordinated by Sociocultural Association El Torrent; Barcelona (Ciutat Vella), of the Fundació Tot Raval; Barcelona (Sant Martí), coordinated by SURT Fundació of Dones; Daimiel, Azira (Barrio of l´Alquerieta) or Almeria promoted by CEPAIM Integral Action with Migrants; Elche, with Foundation Elche Acoge; Ejido, by means of CODENAF; Getafe, with the coordination of the CEAR; Granada with the coordination of the Association Gitana Anaquerando; in jerez de la Frontera coordinated by the Reception Center for Immigrants (CEAIN); in Leganés with the Foundation of the Autonomous University of Madrid; in Logroño with Rioja Acoge; in Madrid with the Ruieca Social and Cultural Association; in Paterna (La Coma) by the Foundation Secretariado Gitano; in San Bartolomé with the coordination of the Foundation Cabaria El Patio; in Tortosa with the Association ACISI; in Zaragoza with the coordination of the Foundation Federico Ozanam in Tenerife with Juntos in the same address
From a rural territorial perspective, to mention the social intervention projects with immigrants in the rural area of Castilla y León, within the Rural Social Council “Zona Norte Tierra de Campos” as well as the Program for promoting intercultural mediation in Campo Arañuelo (north of Extremadura) and Teruel promoted by CEPAIM.
They are projects whose cores are: integration; intercultural; citizenship coexistence and community participation. They create partnership with local governments to promote community development processes based on the three priority areas in the local space: educational (counting on the formal and informal resources); health (from a public and community perspective) and social field, promoting the citizens participation and the coordination among the different social agents of the community.
The social work with communities involves collective action focused on the participation and the mobilization of the people´s local resources. The emphasis is on the nature and importance of the territorial population units and based on the underlying network of human relationships, the tangible relational infrastructure and on-line. This social fabric, the interactions amongst the persons that know each other, is something that gives the small community a structure of latent power that can be used as a tool for change and development. Based on the features that characterize good practices according to international community (UNESCO,
1. To be innovative and creative in their methodology of analysis and intervention at the local level. Involves changes and modifications of an existing situation, responding to the population’s needs in a novel way and caring of the agreed objectives and rhythms with that population. The social innovation is linked to the generating new solutions, intervention strategies, methodology, organization´s form, etc.
2. To be able to promote membership and solidarity. Practices driven from below. From the groups and inter groups dynamics.
3. To be capable of creating awareness, organization, mobilization, and impact on the promotion of the participation of the people, groups and various collectives in the local level (associationism, platforms, interorganizational movements, committees, etc.).
4. To have a positive impact on improving the coexistence of the people and various collectives who coexist in a given local area (city, village, neighborhood). The social work with communities should bring together people and groups from different backgrounds, nationalities, ethnicity, capabilities, etc. Promoting intergenerational and intercultural dialogue, creating interchange space between administration and social entities and promoting the prevention and pacific management of the local and intergroup conflicts.
5. To be susceptible of being adapted and transferred on other contexts and entities being motivating element to continue innovating and creating new models of knowledge and know-how. The reception of a community practice in different contexts before similar situations provides reliability, testability and transferability in the community practice, being required a certain amount of experimentation time and being properly documented both the tasks and the processes and results.
6. Transversal incorporation of the gender perspective or mainstreaming of gender in the community practices.
7. To be sponsors of the equality and the social equality, identifying, recognizing and strengthening, the different potential capacities, existing and emerging. To involve equitable participation of actors, not only from representativeness, but specially of the integration of all the positions/voices. It requires equal consideration/recognition in the debates in a horizontal communication. criteria and processes must be transparent, avoiding favoring “large corporations”, to ignore oppositions or, to privilege the “experts” in excess. The maximum inclusion/representativeness implies the citizens in general must have the possibility to access and implicate in political decisions and not only the qualified individuals and groups.
8. To be sustainable in time and respectful of the environment and natural environment, cultural and artistic. The good practices must have the capacity of holding together over time and providing lasting effects until the situation has improved or is replaced by another.
9. To promote and stimulate the coordination and the work in network among organizations and collectives of and for the territory. The practice has to promote the cooperation, coordination, the synergies and interdependencies among different social actors in the territory.
10. To be concerned with processes, providing continuity in time for actions looking out expectations of the population.
11. To have interdisciplinary team linked to natural leaders.
12. To have a work program, with a shared community diagnosis, achievable goals and prevention actions, promotion and support for agreed social inclusions among the different groups who coexist in the territory. It is essential to perform an inclusive planning, representing an agreement for “rules of the game”, clarity in context, finality, resolutions, design in process and tasks. all this participative process must satisfy the emotional (capable of making the participants and the citizens in general feel recognized, respected and heard), the legitimate interest of the participants which is to obtain results and feel/perceive/objectify that the process is legitimate, just and valuable.
13. To systematize continuously the tasks and the work process, as well as the tangible and intangible obtained results.
14. To make inhabitants protagonist of their results, avoiding the technical and political limelight.
15. To have a dynamic team and undertake dynamic facilitators. The social workers should be impartial and qualified, their main task is to cultivate a shared sense of ownership, empowering citizens by means of a significant dialogue (Pastor,
16. To help to be heard, explore new ideas without restrictions, generate new options. It is about learning to resolve conflicts by means of the negotiations and the dialogue, communicate to interact with others, to care, to assess the environment and develop personal autonomy from the responsibility. Ultimately to generate learning, distension self-reflection space. For this, it is important to be concerned with rhythm, generate moments of inflection that allow participants to appear vulnerable and make vulnerable and permeable the rest of the actors.
17. To promote a communicative action and a deliberate operation in decision making. The participants in the community processes must have the extensive information about the pros and cons, the different interest and options of the issues that to be happening in the process. It is necessary to transfer capabilities of deliberation and decision to the citizen in order to have the capital and power to make autonomous decisions. It is about to move toward a communicative action we will overcoming relational instrumental action based on the consensual of knowing all and inter subjective charter.
18. To provide transparency to the process and trust in and among participants, requiring that the information be accessible/multidirectional/polycentric and from various media. It is about generating clear and flexible processes both in information and in the collection of options, analysis thereof and generation of alternatives analyzed from viability aspect and future prospect.
19. To support the common good and therefore link it to the adoption of important decisions for the future of the community and not only certain groups. This requires a community diagnosis based on prioritization criteria adopted in a participatory manner.
20. To make sure that each participatory effort has real potential, implying participation mechanisms interconnected, adequate, effectives and capacitated. The participants must make evident that their participation is significant/influences/impacts, a feeling of real input on processes, tasks and decisions.
21. To promote a participative culture socially engaged with the territory. The participative processes must be linked together in order to continue generating a participatory culture in local context involving all daily life areas and socializing agents in order to generate a participative city and of citizens.
The social work with communities suppose to be greener, incorporating to our range of view the path and the resources that exist or may exist. The integration of the individual and collective action requires assemble and feedback both dimensions in the social problems.
In our societies democracy, citizenship, pluralism and interdependency are inseparable, in them exist different, asymmetric, scattered and divergent power and decisions centers. The interdependent character of the problems and actors entails overcoming classical models of intervention based on segmented and unidirectional schedules, being appropriate to recognize, accept and integrate the complexity as an intrinsic element of the social intervention process, articulating systems inclusive of participation of the different actors and institutions within local network. This involves the construction, implementation and management of programs and strategical project, transversals and participated; whose ownership and real and perceived leadership are belong to the citizens. These premises guide to utilize conceptual, methodological and imaginary reference of “local network” for describing and analyzing the complex, dynamic, diverse and unstable civic and institutional amalgam and move toward ecological strategies of management of the collective affairs in the municipal level in order “to be able to make necessary political decisions to insure a sustainable development, defending the common good in the long-term, that is only possible with and not against the citizens” (Harms and Pereyra,
The social work in its collective dimensions assumes multiple roles to adapt to rhythms and faces: defender, mediator, coordinator, planner, motivator, etc., where a social work must “equip itself” with a coherent discourse, transparent and integrated and integrator of the population´s dynamic characteristics, the groups and the moments together with innovated techniques and skills that can help build paths that, with the participative logic, without prescribing are required to be competent in “chaos” of the complex relational universe without losing “the compass”. The proper development of this process requires to start from the study of the felt needs of community members and a continuous and sincere communication among/with and for the subjects (citizens and representations) and the social work who wants to emphasize processes, practices and qualitative techniques that allow the (re)conaissance of the social reality and its transformation emphasizing in the participation in entire process and in the style of the professional in its daily work in a substantive manner for promoting an integral social development.
The community intervention process demands a will and concentration commitment and the creation and strengthening of partnership and solid and sustainable networks, beyond merely interested or instrumental alliances. For this it is essential to adopt transparent and positive positions of the cooperation, the conflict and negotiation for transversal inclusion in the deliberation and adaption processes of communities decisions. The community practice requires to understand that not all the relations are based on an objective or shared interest, frequently and normally the groups and organizations have and defend opposite or different objectives and will not respond uniquely by skills such as the empathy. Hence the social worker in the collective intervention oriented towards local development must assume multiple roles for adapting himself/herself continuously to the rhythms and faces and relations: defender, mediator, coordinator, planner, motivator, agitator, etc, in order to promote and vitalize the existing social capital in the locality around dynamic interest centers. The polyvalent and “permeable” professional profile represents that versatility necessary for understanding and interacting intelligently with a complex community, where the social work must equip itself with an integrated and integrator discourse of the characteristics and dynamics of the population, the groups and the moments; while bringing into “play” techniques and innovated skills that can contribute to construction paths that, with the participative logic, and without prescribing, the competencies in the chaos of the complex relational universe are required.
“Partnership”, local corporatism or local group of action, according to the authors, it is build by an association with flexible bodies and committed persons in stimulating an integral development in a given territory.
The main purpose of the Program MOST is supplying the results of the research in social sciences and the politically relevant informations to the responsible decision makers and to the interested actors. MOST focuses on the production of the efficient ties among the research, the policy and the practice, in order to generate a policies culture based on empirical proofs-nationally, regionally and internationally. As the only UNESCO program that performs and promotes social sciences research, MOST has a central position in the overall promotion of the Organization objectives: