More Than Place-Based: Viewing Geography on a Continuum and the Implications for Social Work Practice

Communities play an important role within the field of social work as the context within which specific social work activities occur. To date, much of the social work literature divides communities into the mutually exclusive, dichotomous categories of geographic and functional communities. The authors propose a new method for defining community that views geography on a continuum and suggests that membership within a community is moderated by place. The concept of place-moderated communities is applied to specific examples, and the application to social work practice is discussed within the context of community membership, community engagement, community rights, and community development efforts.