engleski

Understanding Deprived Communities at the Global Level: Semantic, Operative and Theoretical Dimensions of the Phenomenon

This first chapter provides a framework in understanding a deprived community as a central concept of the book. We explore terminology, how it is measured and what are relevant theoretical frameworks. There are at least 15 common terms available in the recent literature. Some of the terms are used in specific contexts (e.g. remote communities, ghettos, slums, vulnerable communities and less favoured areas). Other terms are generic, i.e. deprived/disadvantaged communities. Deprivation or disadvantage indices are composite measures based on aggregated values at an individual level (income, education, employment, household structure, crime) and less seldom community- level variables (distance from important centres, availability of services). In measuring deprived communities, objective and outcome indicators prevail. We use deprived communities as an umbrella term and define them as those who have one of the following traits: they gather a significant number of inhabitants of low socioeconomic status, they have unfavourable developmental outcomes with respect to their surroundings, they face structurally conditioned obstacles in development, they are exposed to serious destructive risks and they create an unfavourable existential environment. In order to understand deprived communities, three theoretical sources are central: structural constraints, power dynamics and critical theory and community development processes from community development theory.

Deprived communities ; Disadvantaged communities ; Development index ; Development inequalities ; Community development

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