Research and community development: A practitioner's viewpoint

Chapter 10 - Community Dynamics

A formalized theory and unified approach to the analysis of division of functions as the basis of the development of various communities, including those of metazoans are elaborated. The concept of the histione, an elementary unit of multicellularity, is introduced. The concepts, rules, and symbols required for description of divisions of functions in this unit are proposed. For quantitative characteristics of such division, sensible and experimentally determined parameters are used. Based on this, it is shown that the development of communities follows the periodic law. Classification of communities looks like a periodic table. This table takes into account two developmental types (progressive and deviant) and reflects the main developmental laws, cyclicity, directedness, and parallelisms. In addition, the table enables prediction of the composition and structure of communities in future development and estimation of the last.

Market characteristics and zoonotic disease risk perception in Cameroon bushmeat markets.

In an era of increasing climate-related threats, the intersection of environmental justice and community development has become more important than ever. This paper examines how environmental justice principles can be integrated into community development practices to ensure fair and inclusive responses to climate change. It begins by clarifying key concepts such as environmental justice, community development, and climate change, highlighting how historically often marginalised communities bear the burden of environmental degradation without equal participation in climate decisions. The paper, grounded in environmental justice theory, argues that fairness, inclusivity, and grassroots participation are essential to addressing environmental challenges effectively. The discussion then shifts to examine the unequal impacts of climate change, which deepen existing social and economic inequalities. It also examines how community development, when rooted in local needs and empowerment, can become a tool for resilience and transformation. The paper highlights practical opportunities to bridge environmental justice and community development, such as through community-based adaptation and inclusive climate planning. It also identifies challenges, including power imbalances, limited resources, and policy gaps, that must be addressed to unlock the full potential of local action. In conclusion, the paper recommends promoting community participation, investing in local leadership, and embedding justice into climate policies. These strategies are vital for creating more equitable, sustainable, and people-centred climate responses. The aim is to inspire policy makers, development practitioners, and researchers to view communities not as passive recipients of aid, but as active partners in climate resilience and justice.

The authors reviewed human empirical studies from 1987–2010 in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB), Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM), and Psychological Record (PR). Out of 2286 empirical studies, the authors classified 45 as simulation research, which fell into 4 main categories including organizational, gambling, financial, and other. JOBM contained over half of the simulations, while JEAB contained two. A subsequent citation analysis found that the original simulations informed 15 service-delivery articles, across five journals. In addition, the original articles also informed 35 other behavioral simulations across 19 journals. Simulation research could be ideally placed between theory and application to facilitate empirical research and applications in complex human behavior and the development of an empirically validated, comprehensive, system of behavior analysis.

Studies on the west coast of North America suggest that nearshore oceanographic conditions can have important effects on rocky intertidal community structure and dynamics. Specifically, upwelling-dependent processes in coastal waters can affect both top-down and bottom-up processes on adjacent rocky shores. As a first step in testing the prediction that similar linkages occur elsewhere, we investigated the effects and rates of predation, grazing, and recruitment on rocky intertidal community dynamics at upwelling and non-upwelling sites on the South Island of New Zealand. Comparative-experimental studies were done at each of two sites on both the east and west coasts of the South Island. We quantified benthic community structure, maximal wave force, nearshore sea-surface temperature, air temperature at low tide, nutrient concentrations, survival of mussels, rates and effects of predation, rates and effects of limpet grazing, recruitment of mussels and barnacles, and RNA:DNA ratios (a growth index) of mussels. Overall, zonation patterns were similar on the upper shore on both coasts: barnacles (Chamaesipho columna) dominated the high zone, and mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) the middle zone. In the low zone, however, community structure differed markedly between coasts. East-coast low-zone communities were dominated by mussels with a moderate canopy of kelp, primarily Durvillea spp., while mussels were largely absent from west-coast low zones. Food webs were similar on the different coasts and included predaceous whelks, sea stars, oystercatchers, and herbivorous limpets. Field experiments showed that only sea stars and limpets had strong effects at west-coast sites, and only limpets had strong effects at east-coast sites. The sea star Stichaster australis, previously identified as a keystone species on the west coast of the North Island, was common and important on the west coast of the South Island but was absent from the east coast. Physical conditions (wave forces, low-tide air temperature) were comparable on the two coasts, suggesting that other factors caused the differences in low-zone community structure. Experiments and observations indicated that predation, grazing, prey recruitment, and mussel growth were greater on the west than on the east coast. While some between-coast contrasts in community dynamics could emanate from differences in species composition (e.g., the absence of S. australis from the east coast), the higher west-coast rates of most of the ecological processes studied suggest that between-coast differences may also depend on other factors. Among the alternatives, a difference in nearshore oceanographic conditions on the opposite coasts of the South Island seems most likely. Prior oceanographic research, and our onshore measurements of sea-surface temperature and nutrients indicate that summer upwelling may be relatively frequent on the west coast and rare on the east coast. While detailed oceanographic studies synchronized with benthic studies in nearshore coastal environments are needed to evaluate this hypothesis, present evidence is consistent with the view that rocky intertidal community structure and dynamics vary with large-scale oceanographic conditions in nearshore coastal environments around New Zealand.

As a common human behavior, interaction is everywhere in human life. With the rise of big data and human–computer interaction in the 21st century, more and more researchers from different industries and disciplines pay great attention to the human interactive behavior research. From the perspective of computer science, scholars try to use computer technology to make research more meaningful. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first study to investigate the potential rules of human interactive behavior in the view of computer science, based on 16 top-tier journals of human interactive behavior from Microsoft Academic Graph dataset. We put forward a topic extraction and clustering model based on word2vec to infer key topics, which can be widely used in different fields of research. We find that the growth of human interactive behavior is in an uptrend on the whole. Besides, the cooperative relationship between authors and countries/regions is closer over time. We also make the mensurable evolution analysis of topics by a statistical method. Some topics are hot all the time, while some are unpopular as time goes by. Finally, we do rankings in the field of human behavior research from a new perspective. All these findings help researchers observe potential patterns and the topic evolution in half a century, which may shed dazzling light on the exploration of human interactive behavior.

Several literary works have acknowledged that the modern institution of the family is in crisis. The increase in social welfare cases such as street children, the vagrant homeless, moral degeneration and rampant crime have however been explained as indicators of and effects of the demise of the institution of the family. Rarely have scholars, researchers and practitioners in community development considered Community Development Practice as a possible tool for reviving the institution of the family. This study examined how community development practice can be used to restore the value of the institution of the family. A descriptive qualitative research design and purposive sampling was used. The sample consisted of information – rich informants who are academic elites in Social Sciences (the Department of Community and Development Studies, the Department of Social Work and the Department of Sociology) at Howard College University of KwaZulu-Natal. The interviewing method was used for the data collection. The study revealed that on one hand, community development practice can play eight roles in instilling the value of the institution of the family. On the other hand, community development practice can apply nine strategies in restoring the value of the beleaguered institution of the modern family.

Despite significant contributions from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in socio-economic development in Bangladesh, the evidence in community development is little known. The findings of this article are based on two NGOs working with two indigenous communities. The study used a qualitative case study research approach, where a multi-method data collection procedure was applied. The analysis of the findings underscored the role of these two NGOs in four ingredients of community development: improving participation, social networking, partnership and development ownership. The results showed that the NGOs’ contributions in community development were credible. The findings provide important guidelines for social workers, NGO workers and development practitioners.

Many theories of motivation recognize a person’s identity adds value to the prediction of behavior; albeit indirectly, through constructs such as social norms, self-efficacy, perceived behavioral control, and values. Recently, behavioral research has more directly assessed the influence of identity on behavior; however, it is unclear whether such research aligns with the theoretical establishments of identity. This review investigated the identity theory alignment of existing behavior research by systematically searching, screening, and reviewing identity-behavior relevant papers, across three behavioral psychology databases. Twenty-three papers meet the inclusion criteria for review (original research with a primary focus on identity and behavior, within healthy adult population), and data relating to identity-behavior theoretical viewpoints, research methods, and study findings were extracted and synthesized to provide a scoping overview of current research. Most reviewed papers presented identity as a loosely defined construct; commonly operationalized as social identity, omitting the theorized multiplicity of social and self-identities. Overall outcomes suggested that identity influences behavior indirectly through intention strength, rather than directly as a post-intention mechanism. While existing research has been crucial in illuminating potential influences of identity on behavior, there is a need to strengthen current understandings and theoretical alignments within future research relating to identity and behavior.

The artificial reef of Fregene, Italy, was built in 1981 as a multipurpose structure with the intent of protecting the coastal environment from illegal trawling and also improving fishery production. It is located at 10–14 m depth on a sandy-silty seabed in the Tyrrhenian Sea, 5 nmi north of the outlet of the Tevere River (Latium, Italy) and 1.5 nmi offshore the town of Fregene (Latium, Italy). The development of the polychaete community on the reef was studied from May 1981 to December 2001 in order to examine long-term community dynamics and verify to what extent changes in polychaete assemblage could depict the development of the benthic assemblage. At each sampling time, two standard surfaces of 400 cm2 were scraped from the vertical walls of the same block. Temporal changes in the development of the polychaete community were detected by univariate (S, N, ExpH', 1/Simpson, J') and multivariate (CLUSTER, nMDS) analysis of the faunal data. Functional structure of the community was also analyzed. Changes in the community structure were shown by an overall increasing trend in the total number of species and individuals. The 20-year development of the polychaete community was divided into five different phases representing different benthic assemblages on the reef: the first two periods correspond to settlement of pioneer species (1981–82); the third is a phase characterized by Mytilus galloprovincialis dominance and regression (1983–85); the fourth is a phase of mud accumulation between dead balanids, with the presence of laminar bryozoans (1991–92), and the last corresponds to a phase dominated by bryozoan bioconstruction (2001). The increased complexity in the benthic assemblage and substratum on the reef is also shown by an increased differentiation and distribution of polychaete functional groups. Increasing environmental heterogeneity on the reef is the basic factor that affected biodiversity by generating new niches that could be occupied by additional species with different ecology. The similarity of the benthic assemblage observed on the reef in 2001 with natural bioconstructions suggest that after two decades the ecological succession has lead to a settlement at a steady-state of equilibrium with the surrounding environment.

Health and human behavior: areas of interest common to the social and medical sciences.

Worldwide, 600 million people live with disability, 80% of whom live in developing countries (World Health Organization, 2005). But the idea of disability is controversial, influenced by culture and competing conceptual systems (Altman, 2001; Zola, 1993). Fujiura and Rutkowski-Kmitta (2001) argue that industrialized Western nations tend to emphasize a restricted-activity approach to estimate the rate of disability within their populations, including: Australia (14.2%), Canada (13.2%), New Zealand (19.0%), and Spain (14.9%). Using this approach, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that about 49 million U.S. citizens over the age of five years experience a disability, with about 38 million living in urban and 11 million living in rural communities (Enders, 2005). About half of these experience significant disability. Historically, regardless of the approach to defining disability, society reacted to people with disability by stigmatizing, institutionalizing, criminalizing, marginalizing, and medicalizing them (Braddock & Parish, 2001). During the past 30 years, a new, ecological paradigm of disability has emerged, one that focuses attention on the environment's contributions to disability rather than placing the cause of disability solely within the individual (Pope & Tarlov, 1991). This view--a social rather than a medical model of disability--supported the de-institutionalization movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and led to the development of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. More recently, the World Health Organization revised its International Classification of Function, Disability, and Health (World Health Organization, 2001) to emphasize disability as the product of the interaction between an individual and his or her environment. In this ecological framework, the environment is generally taken to mean the community. The outcome of the interaction between the individual and the environment may be measured by the degree of participation in community life. Under this framework, there are new opportunities for partnerships between people with disabilities, disability advocates, and community development researchers and practitioners. The articles in this collection touch on the intersection between disability and community development. They report on studies of disability advocacy, accessible and affordable housing, economic development, community planning, transportation, and access to faith communities. They report studies that involve people with disabilities associated with a wide range of impairments, including mobility as well as cognitive, psychiatric, and sensory impairments. The authors in this issue describe how theories of independent living and community development overlap, and how methods from both are being applied by disability advocates to achieve their dreams and aspirations for equity, freedom, and dignity. O'Day introduces readers to independent living philosophy and the national network of Centers for Independent Living (CIL) that promote the empowerment of people with disabilities from all causes through advocacy at the local, state, and national levels. Her national study shows that CILs and their consumers focus a great deal of advocacy efforts on changing community environments and systems of service such as housing, transportation, and employment. She argues that CILs may be good partners for broader community development agencies. Hernandez and her colleagues describe an example of participatory action research and advocacy conducted by citizens with disabilities in a large city. They emphasize how advocacy by people with disability achieves the two defining aspects of community--solidarity and agency--described by Bhattacharyya (2004). They also demonstrate the changes in the environment that local advocacy can achieve. In the process, they highlight the fact that people with disability can be a minority within a minority group. Maisel introduces the concept of visitability in housing--a growing movement across the country to achieve a minimal level of accessible housing so that people with mobility impairments--some 6. …

We examined the patterns of propagule recruitment to assess the timescale and trajectory of succession and the possible roles of physical factors in controlling benthic community structure in a shallow High Arctic kelp bed in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska. Spatial differences in established epilithic assemblages were evaluated against static habitat attributes (depth, distance from river inputs) and environmental factors (temperature, salinity, current speed, underwater light) collected continuously over 2–6 years. Our measurements revealed that bottom waters remained below freezing (mean winter temperatures ∼−1.8°C) and saline (33–36) with negligible light levels for 8–9 months. In contrast, the summer open water period was characterized by variable salinities (22–36), higher temperatures (up to 8–9°C) and measurable irradiance (1–8 mol photons m–2 day–1). An inshore, near-river site experienced strong, acute, springtime drops in salinity to nearly 0 in some years. The epilithic community was dominated by foliose red algae (47–79%), prostrate kelps (2–19%), and crustose coralline algae (0–19%). Strong spatial distinctions among sites included a positive correlation between cover by crustose coralline algae and distance to river inputs, but we found no significant relationships between multi-year means of physical factors and functional groups. Low rates of colonization and the very slow growth rates of recruits are the main factors that contribute to prolonged community development, which augments the influence of low-frequency physical events over local community structure. Mortality during early succession largely determines crustose coralline algal and invertebrate prevalence in the established community, while kelp seem to be recruitment-limited. On scales > 1 m, community structure varies with bathymetry and exposure to freshwater intrusion, which regulate frequency of primary and physiological disturbance. Colonization rates (means of 3.3–69.9 ind. 100 cm–1 year–1 site–1) were much lower than studies in other Arctic kelp habitats, and likely reflect the nature of a truly High Arctic environment. Our results suggest that community development in the nearshore Beaufort Sea occurs over decades, and is affected by combinations of recruitment limitation, primary disturbance, and abiotic stressors. While seasonality exerts strong influence on Arctic systems, static habitat characteristics largely determine benthic ecosystem structure by integrating seasonal and interannual variability over timescales longer than most ecological studies.

VR (virtual reality) technologies can elicit in participants the illusion of being present in a simulated reality. Throughout history, science and technology have co-evolved in complementary processes. Scientific discoveries have helped develop new technologies, and at the same time, new technologies allowed non-cumulative breakthroughs in research. We suggest that VR may revolutionize human behavior research and teaching, almost in the same way that the telescope advanced astronomy and the microscope advanced biological research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these immersive technologies have scaled in use and adaptation. Academic papers and commercial applications are evaluated in this review. Furthermore, expert individuals are interviewed to account for the true nature of the advancement of immersive technologies due to the pandemic. We show that significant advancements were achieved in the educational framework using immersive technologies. Furthermore, we discuss the elevation in collaborative work using VR, either in large quantities in conferences or smaller groups, as a collaboration framework for coworkers. Next, we discuss the changes and opportunities in behavioral research that result in the necessity to exit the lab and create a global ecosystem to supply participants with remote evaluation methodologies named remote XR. Moreover, we discussed conceptual changes that accrued within the clinical communities that are believed to affect the technological adaptation of immersive technologies as part of clinical work and patient treatment plans and evaluation procedures in the future.KeywordsVirtual realityExtended realityImmersive educationPsychological immersive experiencesImmersive medical trainingSocial immersive worlds