Associational Structure and Community Development: a Comparative Study of Two Communities in Southern United States

One of the basic arguments is that the comprehensive development of a local community requires coordination & integration among its diverse interest fields. Coordination & comprehensiveness of the community structure are observable at the levels of all 3 analytical units of the community field: actors, actions & associations. At the level of actors, the coordinative nature of the community structure may be measured in terms of the existence of a generalized leadership constituted of a small number of individuals widely reputed as general leaders in the community whose participation is effective in a variety of interest fields. In terms of actions, the emphasis on coordination & comprehensiveness in the community can be seen in the local identity of the activities & in their broad scope of interest & a wide range of participation. At the associational level, coordination & integration of the community structure may be analyzed in terms of the extent to which associations cooperate & participate in community activities. In an ideal integrated community there would be a central coordinating organization, CD association, expressly organized to coordinate & initiate programs in a variety of interest fields along with other coordinating & participating organizations. The objective is to elaborate on a conceptual model of an effective coordinating associational structure for comprehensive CD & examine the validity of the model by comparing 2 communities. An attempt is also made to develop a quantitative scale to measure the coordinativeness of associational structures of the 2 communities.