Diagnostic approach to community assessment and development in South-East Europe
Contemporary community sociology theoretical outcomes should be motivating and applicable in practice. For those purposes it is essential to develop proper community assessment and development (intervention) tools carefully adapted to regional/local context. Most contemporary studies related to community assessment and development are best practice case-studies - mostly not applicable in the political, economic, social and technological context present in the SEE (South-East Europe) region. Therefore, this study is oriented towards: a) "transcending" the case-based approach and b) investigation the general framework for the assessment and development of social capacity. Consequently, this study encompassed two key challenges: a) redefinition of concept of traditional and post-modern communities, b) recognizing social and other outcomes of community activities/development within the given regional/local SEE context. Destruction and revitalization of the traditional notion of community was put into the context of the perpetual growth of urbanization and virtualization. Concerning the fact that the community assessment and development challenges and the political/social situation in the SEE region are more turbulent compared to those present in developed countries, it is even more important to create routines and tools for strengthening communities and enable them to achieve a more advanced level of self-sufficiency in cause-related social activities. The specific context of post-war and post-transition social tensions in the SEE region offered interesting "terra incognita" for nestling alternative theoretical concepts within the contemporary community sociology theory. For the above-mentioned purpose two groups of objectives were defined: a) Scientific objectives (theoretical model building and its validation within the context of assessment and development of the traditional community capacity), b) Practical objectives (presumed assisting local community actors in solving specific problems). All research ...
