Community Organization, Theory, Principles, And Practice

Author: Murray G. Ross, (New York: Harper & Row, 1967)
Community Organization, Theory, Principles, and  Practices

A Class Assignment (Book Review) Prepared for Survey of Community Organization 13-042-61
Graduate Department of Community Planning
University of Cincinnati
Instructor: Mr. Bailey Turner, Assistant Professor of Community Planning
Prepared by: Gladys Turner Finney
Autumn Quarter, 1975

At the time the book was written, Murray G. Ross was a social work
educator, researcher, and consultant in community organization at the
University of Toronto School of Social Work.

Community Organization, Theory, Principles, and Practices deals
with community organization, theories, guiding principles, and role
of the professional community organizer. Emphasis is placed on community
organization as a "process," conscious or unconscious, voluntary or
involuntary whereby a community identifies, ranks its needs or objectives,
finds resources (internal or external) and takes action to solve the
problem or obtain the objective.

Planning and community integration are seen as the two essential
tasks in community organization, both being an integral part of the
process but community integration considered the most important objective.
Planning is conceived by the author to "represent the whole act, from the
stirring of consciousness about a problem to the action taken to resolve
the problem." It involves four steps: (1) definition of the problem;
(2) study of the nature, meaning, and implications of the problem'
(3) decision regarding ultimate solutions; and (4) action on the
solution agreed upon.

The hypothesis of the book is that cooperative planning-problem
solving and consensus will lead to community integration (e.g. identifi-
cation, interest, and participation in the common life of the community).
However, cooperation and attainment of consensus are stressed almost to
the point where one might get the impression that cooperative-collabo-
rative planning and consensus are valued objectives within themselves.
Herein lies a grave danger that the community organization process is
more important than the outcome without any accountability for group
decisions. There is a fallacy to assume that group decisions are in
effect sound or rational decisions even though democratic methods have
been applied. For example there are innumerable situations where the
rights of minorities have been violated through the democratic process.
Another fallacy for the author to assume is that a skilled community
organizer will enable a community to achieve consensus on any issue or
problem and that the community will emerge better integrated from the
experience.

Ross' professional community organizer is a versatile, perplexing
man with many contradictions. He is a skilled community analyst,
diagnostician, and therapist; a facilitator, guide, enabler of the
community organization process, but via discipline and taboo cannot assume the leader-
ship role. He supports democratic values and processes, (e.g., right
to self-determination, freedom, equality, community participation, etc.)
but cannot take a stand on behalf of any group, solution or project. He
must "identify with the community as a whole" (which might be difficult
if he is an ethnic or racial minority). He is objective, non-judgmental
despite the fact that all planning and solutions involve value judgments
and preferences. He accepts symptoms for what they are. He does not
criticize, blame, praise or make comparisons. "His special expertness
is in bringing diverse groups together, in clarifying issues, enlarging
the area of common concern in the community, in establishing processes
and procedures by which a community can make a collective decision."

The conceptual model upon which the author predicates his
community organization approach is based on a natural systems
change model whereby citizen participation, decision making, and
change at the local level can be instituted in a manner that will integrate the community.

The book has merits as an introductory textbook on community
organization and presents a good overview of community organization
as a profession and process for affecting social change.

There was a deliberate attempt to integrate and/or apply princi-
ples to practice through case presentation as a way of giving the
reader a clear understanding of what community organization is and
the role of the community organizer.