Overview
Jack Rothman's paper "Three models of community organization practice", presented at the 1968 National Conference on Social Welfare and published in Social Work Practice 1968 (1969), sorted the many forms of community work into three ideal types. The typology became the most widely used framework in community social work, and which steps of the community practice process are emphasised depends on the model.
The three models
- Locality development: broad participation of residents, self-help and cooperation to solve problems and build community competence. It stresses process goals and relies on consensus and communication. Settlement houses and community development programmes are its prototypes.
- Social planning: experts tackle concrete social problems such as delinquency, housing or health through data gathering, analysis and rational planning. It stresses task goals; resident participation varies. Needs assessment and programme planning are its key tools.
- Social action: a disadvantaged group is organised to make demands on the wider community for resources and better treatment and to change power structures and institutions. It uses conflict and confrontation tactics such as protests, negotiation and campaigns; the civil rights and welfare rights movements are examples.
Comparing the models
- Goals: self-help and integration (process) in locality development; solving substantive problems (task) in social planning; shifting power relations and institutions (both) in social action.
- View of the power structure: collaborators in locality development, employers or sponsors in social planning, and external targets or oppressors in social action.
- View of residents: citizens, consumers of services, and victims of the system respectively.
- Practitioner roles: enabler, coordinator and teacher; expert, fact-gatherer, analyst and programme implementer; advocate, activist, broker and negotiator.
Mixing and revision
In the fifth edition of Strategies of Community Intervention (1995), Rothman stressed that real practice mixes the models and shifts among them over time. In 2007 he renamed them planning/policy, community capacity development and social advocacy, and cross-tabulated them into nine modes: three predominant forms and six composites. His conclusion was that rational planning and participatory grassroots problem solving are not opposed and are stronger when linked.
Uses and limitations
The models are often used in case analyses to decide which approach a project resembles: a neighbourhood community-building project is close to locality development, a municipal welfare plan to social planning, and a residents' rights campaign to social action. Because they are ideal types they simplify mixed practice, and questions such as how to grow residents' social capital or strengths need other theories.
References
- Rothman, J. (1969). Three models of community organization practice. In Social Work Practice 1968 (pp. 16–47). New York: Columbia University Press.
- Rothman, J. (1995). Approaches to community intervention. In J. Rothman, J. L. Erlich, & J. E. Tropman (Eds.), Strategies of Community Intervention (5th ed., pp. 26–63). Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock.
- Rothman, J. (2007). Multi modes of intervention at the macro level. Journal of Community Practice, 15(4), 11–40.