On knowing the community of caring persons: A methodological basis for the reflective-generative practice of community psychology

• Published in: Journal of community psychology Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 26 - 35
• Main Author: Dokecki, Paul R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.1992
• ISSN: 0090-4392; 1520-6629
• DOI: 10.1002/1520-6629(199201)20:1<26::AID-JCOP2290200105>3.0.CO;2-2

The combination of generative‐reflective practice and human science provides a powerful postpositivist rationale for community research and action. As a foundation for this rationale, the paper begins with an analysis of persons‐in‐community and of caring as the core of community psychology intervention. This analysis is based on work of 20th‐century Scottish philosopher John Macmurray. In Macmurray's view, the person and the community are hierarchically and emergently organized at mechanistic, organic, and personal levels. This multilevel organization requires multiple methods: experimental and functional studies, systems studies, interpretive studies, and worldview (Weltanschauung) studies. Such a methodological framework is comprehensive, nondualistic, and holistic. It promises to enable community psychologists to address the complexity of the life of persons‐in‐community and the many pressing intervention tasks we face in the postmodern world (Newbrough, this issue).