Sense of Community
Dr. McMillan is a national leader in the theory of Sense of Community, concept in community psychology that focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation, setting, or other features. Sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, and others have theorized about and carried out empirical research on community, but the psychological approach asks questions about the individual's perception, understanding, attitudes, feelings, etc. about community and his or her relationship to it and to others' participation—indeed to the complete, multifaceted community experience. describe the dynamics of the sense-of-community force — to identify the various elements in the force and to describe the process by which these elements work together to produce the experience of sense of community. Below you’ll find Dr. McMillan’s latest thinking on Sense of Community.
To download his seminal paper on the topic, click here.
An Introduction to Sense of the Community
This article attempts to describe the dynamics of the sense-of-community force—to identify the various elements in the force and to describe the process by which these elements work together to produce the experience of sense of community.
Defining A Community’s Developmental Paths
This article will have many stages that have exactly the same organization. The article will have review of theories of human developmental stages. Then it will discuss our stages one at a time.
Changing a Community's Climate
Assume for the moment that we know what the essential ingredients are to a community and its spirit; that we know the developmental path that communities follow; what we do not yet know is a community’s emotional climate? And how can a community psychologist help a community to transform its emotional climate? That is the focus of this article.
An Evolved Perspective on Sense of Community
This article revisits the theory of sense of community originally developed in 1976 and subsequently presented by McMillan and Chavis (1986). Chavis, Hogge, McMillan, and Wandersman (1986) demonstrated its empirical strength as a theory and developed the Sense of Community Questionnaire.
A Theory Not a Value: A Response to Nowell and Boyd
This is a response to the Nowell and Boyd (2010) article printed in this journal titled: Viewing Community as Responsibility as Well as Resource: Deconstructing the Theoretical Roots of Psychological Sense of Community.