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

Abstract

Regardless of its level of development, there is no country in the world that does not have a local community facing a significant developmental challenge. A community offers its members many facets of life: a space for co-life, solidarity and socialisation, a space in which families start and develop, in which inhabitants acquire a basic income and are ensured fundamental existential needs. The community is also a space for living on which people rely when encountering personal difficulties such as poverty, sickness, violence and trauma. The community is able to heal but also poison or place an additional burden on individual destinies. It can become a place of exclusion, fear, uncertainty and isolation. Due to its functioning and effects, the community is valuable for social work as a profession which has since its origins positioned itself between people and their surroundings and endeavours to construct an approach based on this relation. Social workers empower individuals, families, public institutions and also communities to fulfil their role. However, when a community additionally encounters development inequalities, difficulties including social, economic, political, geographic and ecological obstacles, the role of social work becomes even more challenging and relevant.Given that the goal of this edited book is to gain a deeper understanding of the role of social work in deprived communities in the widest possible sense throughout the world, the first chapter will touch upon three fundamental questions:• What does "deprived community" mean, and what are the concepts and meanings associated with it? • How are poorer developmental outcomes in local communities measured? • What theories are relevant in understanding deprived communities?