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A micro level model for assessing community development towards improved wellbeing

Developments since the 20th century indicate that the wellbeing of communities
makes for healthy national welfare in strong countries. Community wellbeing is
thus a priority for policy makers and service providers. Conceptualization of a
meaningful, holistic multidimensional measurement of community wellbeing at
micro (community) level has been lacking. Such a concept and its measurement
are essential when addressing social exclusion and development issues in the
enhancement of community wellbeing is to produce worthwhile results. There is
growing recognition that earlier understanding of community wellbeing failed to
address development needs and processes at community level. Outsider
stakeholder driven top-down one-dimensional community wellbeing (‘silo’)
measurements did not address human development needs at community level.
Meaningful measurement requires integrated frameworks addressing multidimensional
issues conceptualizing wellbeing measurement at community level.
Such measurement needs to be combined with the integrated inclusion of social
capital influence through ‘insider-outsider’ partnerships.
The research study purpose was to develop a community driven holistic,
integrative wellbeing assessment model. This model could assist ‘insiders’
(community members) and ‘outsiders’ (policy makers, service providers and
community development practitioners) in developing and implementing
community driven initiatives towards improved wellbeing. The two main
research questions were: 1) which macro level wellbeing assessment factors to
consider in an aligned micro level wellbeing assessment? and 2) what is the
associative relationship between wellbeing and social capital?
Two descriptive sample surveys were conducted utilizing a structured
questionnaire. Primary data findings contributed to finalization of a community
level wellbeing assessment model. This model would enable estimation of the
potential (push and pull) factors that influence the targeted success of
suggested community development processes. The assessment model is
community driven and owned, with spider and quadrant diagram graph tools
indicating first the status of community wellbeing and social capital, then the
associative relationships of wellbeing and social capital in ‘insider-outsider’
initiatives for wellbeing enhancement. / Development Studies / D. Phil. (Development Studies)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/24982
Date04 1900
CreatorsHart, Cornelia Susanna
ContributorsDe Beer, F. C.
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format1 online resource (iv, iv, 194 leaves) : illustrations, graphs

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