Survey Data Collection and Integration by Cristina Davino & Luigi Fabbris

Author:Cristina Davino & Luigi Fabbris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg

3 The Construction of a Self–Anchoring Scale for Community Action Orientation

3.1 Preliminary Steps

The literature in community psychology presents various constructs—attachment to place and sense of place (Proshansky et al. 1983), community identity (Puddifoot 1995; Lalli 1992)—and proposes several instruments of measurement. These concepts have in common the dimension of belonging as their central element.

The model of sense of community (McMillan and Chavis 1986) best explains the interconnections between people and their environments and describes the way in which members of a community feel that they belong to it, that they are important for others and that they have been nurtured in trust to satisfy each other’s needs.

Arcidiacono et al. (2012) explored in depth how the sense of community is considered to be the key indicator correlated with the perception of inclusion in the community one belongs to (Mashek et al. 2007) as well as one’s social wellbeing, with perceived support (Dalton et al. 2001; Herrero and Gracia 2007; Pretty 1990) and with social participation (Davidson et al. 1991; Tartaglia 2006).

Brodsky et al. (Brodksy 2006; Brodksy et al. 1999; Brodksy and Marx 2001) emphasize that this indicator should be seen as the meaning and significance that the community takes on for the individual in terms of qualities, values and costs, both in a positive and in a negative way.

Chavis (2006) highlights the central role of the sense of belonging among citizens who carry out local community projects. Nevertheless, other studies conducted in the south of Italy (Arcidiacono 2004; Arcidiacono and Procentese 2005; Arcidiacono et al. 2007; Arcidiacono and Di Napoli 2008a,b) have indicated that neither the sense of belonging nor the sense of community provide reliable clues regarding how the individual will act in the community at the personal, relational and community levels (Prilleltensky and Nelson 2002).

These studies suggest that the sense of belonging to a community does not have a transformative power to promote social action: so, as the central aspect for orientation to project action, Arcidiacono (2004) proposed the dimension of trust meant as an expectancy value towards territorial community, in which two main factors can be identified: usefulness and the value attributed to its consequences.

Then we constructed a specific and adequate scale, according to the Cantril approach, to collect information about the orientation to act in the community.

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