Community

Community
Name:
Institution:
Community
Part B
Functionalism describes each section of the community as encouraging to the solidity of the whole. Therefore, from a functionalist approach, each section of the community relies on the other sections and every department contains consequences for the whole society. The conflict theory, on the other hand, highlights the role of coercion as well as power, which is the capacity of an individual or group to apply influence and management over others, in creating social harmony. Andersen and Taylor (2007), underline that inequality is unfair according to conflict approach theorists; however, it is present because the elite actively safeguards their advantages. The theory gives significant attention to race, gender as well as class because they are the origins of struggles in the community. The symbolic interaction theory opines that people’s behavior is influenced by what they believe and not what is necessarily true. Therefore, society is socially developed by human perception.
The empowerment perspective is an approach on practice that offers means of reasoning about and doing practice. It aims at improving the strength and control that people, teams, families, and communities have at their disposal. The structural approach emphasizes on how persons fit into their community setting and are connected to those who guide them (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2012). It describes communities as political units, political power as well as the physical organization of communities.

The socio-psychological approach entails how individuals feel about themselves and how they socialize. The human ecology approach highlights the connection of people to their environment in light of spatial arrangement. It focuses on ecological concepts such as segregation, interaction, and competition. The social systems approach focuses on the description of how social subsystems interact within a society.
Part B
Social workers and sociologists draw from extensive theoretical perspectives in order to comprehend the society. Functionalism, symbolic interaction, conflict, human ecology as well as social systems, are among the major theoretical perspectives that have been employed in different fields. The conflict approach holds that social shift majorly entails rearranging 8the distribution of limited resources among different communities. In contrast, functionalism perceives social shift to be potentially detrimental. According to Andersen and Taylor (2007), the conflict perspective holds that struggles may result in improvements, elimination of inequality, advancements and the development of fresh groups. Thus, conflict theorists view conflict as a benefit to the community. Conversely, the symbolic interaction approach holds that change develops from an ever-developing set of social connections and the evolution of fresh meaning systems.
Functionalists hold that most individuals comply with the regulations because they perceive the law to be fair and just. The conflict approach, on the other hand, underline that social order is upheld by the administration coupled with the utilization of force. Additionally, conflict theorists maintain that the elite use legal power to compel others to obey their resolve. Contrariwise, symbolic interaction theorists opine that people and the society are interdependent.
The functionalist theorists maintain that most people in the community have common values as well as norms. The conflict approach highlights that the contemporary society comprises of various groups that hold contrasting attitudes, values and norms, thus conflict is inevitable. According to the symbolic interaction perspective, inequality is validated through the prominence of symbols. Notably, both functionalism and conflict perspectives acknowledge that inequality exists in society and it is inevitable. While functionalism has been criticized for holding conservative views, the conflict theory has been censured for being too radical (Andersen & Taylor, 2007). The conflict theory is criticized as motivating oppressed groups to rise against the existing power structure. The Symbolic interaction theory, on the other hand, is criticized for little analysis of inequality while overstating the subjective basis of society.
The human ecology approach to community focuses on the connection of populations to their setting particularly in light of how individuals and services are distributed. The social systems approach focuses on the evaluation of how different subsystems within the society interrelate with each other. Whereas the ecological perspective considers how the environment impacts the development, interaction and the quality of life among people, the social systems approach on community emphasizes on relationships. The fundamental social units within the society entail formal institutions like government departments, schools, hospitals and social welfare institutions as well as informal units like the family.
Perceiving communities from a human ecology perspective aids one to lay emphasis on the inequities as well as problems that confront individuals who have scarce resources. The social systems perspective helps one to perceive clients in the context of the community system as a whole (Zastrow, & Kirst-Ashman, 2012). Consequently, social workers applying the social systems perspective are able to comprehend how a particular community affects the client and if the client has access to the resources required for optimum well-being as well as health.
Both the social systems perspective and the human ecology perspective provide a mechanism of comprehending how individuals interact with different parts of their environment. Just like the conflict perspective, the human ecology approach underlines that struggle in terms of competition is often connected to social class; the classification of individuals in terms of their wealth, power as well as the family background. Further, the human ecology perspective identifies segregation; the isolation of some groups that contain common features in terms of race, gender, ethnicity or even religion.
References
Andersen, M., & Taylor, H. (2007). Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Zastrow, C., & Kirst-Ashman, K. (2012). Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.