Community as a Construct

Background: The idea of community is central in public health. We intervene on ‘communities’ conduct ‘community’ based research, work with ‘communities’, compare ‘communities’, etc. Yet how community is defined, constructed or operationalized is not often discussed. Anecdotally if you ask people to define their communities you will get a range of answers and perspectives. This suggests that community has a subjective definition making it difficult to develop a construct that would be inclusive and exhaustive. Much of health disparities work is focused on comparing communities, i.e comparing affluent communities with resource deprived ones or communities of color with white communities. It becomes difficult to compare studies or look at the broader body of work if there are not commonalities or an understanding of  community as a construct.

Objectives: There has been  limited conceptualization and varying understanding of the role of community in public health intervention. It is especially important to develop a clear definition of community to anchor community based evaluation research. For this reason it is important to understand the construct of community and identify appropriate ways in which is is amenable to intervention.

Methods: A literature review was conducted in an iterative manner to locate articles related to community. Search terms will sought out research that focuses on community-based evaluation, community interventions and the operationalization of community in public health. An analysis was done to identify key themes and components that go into defining and understating community as a construct.