COMMUNITY OR COMMUNITIES? -- A DILEMMA FOR STUDIES OF COMMUNITY POWER

Abstract

The great majority of writings in the field of community power tend to use an undifferentiated concept of the community, classifying together social units performing widely differing functions. This paper argues that in order for the field of community power to advance toward developing comparative propositions, it is necessary to formulate a more differentiated classification for communities. Approaches to this problem utilized in other areas besides crnnmunity power are reviewed, and an abstract typology for classifying communities according to their functions is presented. Indicators for measuring the various functions are suggested. The utility of the typology is demonstrated in several comparative propositions concerning community power. Twenty-six items on which it is suggested that future community power studies collect data are listed.