Community Analysis and Organizations

In the industrial area adjacent to the Stock Yards of Chicago, a community council was formed which included the two basic institutions of the area — (1) organized religion and (2) organized labor — as well as all of the other interest and action groups in that community. "Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council" is an experimental demonstration of a community organizational procedure predicated upon a functional conception of the character of a community and its problems. On the local scene the council has operated a successful program. It has brought about not only a tangible improvement in the way of life of the local residents of Back of the Yards but has also resulted in the development of an unusual sympathy and understanding between organizations which previously had been in opposition and conflict. This Council has not confined its efforts to the local scene but has also addressed itself to the task of coping with those larger socioeconomic issues which converge upon the local scene to establish the plight of Back of the Yards. The Council is aiding other industrial areas to organize in a similar manner in the hope that the combined strength of many such community councils will be sufficient to deal effectively with these major destructive forces. Community organizational enterprises have traditionally confined themselves to co-ordination of professional formal agencies which are, first, superimposed upon the community and, second, play a superficial role in the life of the community. It is a rare phenomenon today to discover a community organization in which the indigenous interest and action groups of the community not only participate but also play a fundamental role in that organization. Even where the possibility of organizational work of this character has evidenced itself, it has not been accompanied by any significant understanding of the social forces involved in the functional nature of a community or of the socioeconomic strata of the community and its corresponding implications. Reprinted from the American Journal of Sociology 46:797-808 by permission of the University of