An examination of the role of communication in the process of social organizing: A case study of the Main Street Business Association.

摘要

This study examines the role of communication in the process of social organizing, specifically as that process contributes to the maintenance and survival of the larger social system. The subject of this case study is the Main Street Business Association, a grassroots, mostly minority organization comprised of small business owners. Data collected through observations, semi-structured interviews and a review of the organizational records revealed five predominant themes: (1) the members are largely double-binded by meager resources barely sufficient for mere survival, yet insufficient for development; (2) a lack of access to and the ability to interpret and act upon relevant information; (3) an underdeveloped knowledge and understanding of the social, economic and political systems and their intersections; (4) a lack of the skills necessary to the acquisition and exercise of public relations and media management skills; and (5) the force of the underlying politics of "social difference". Application of an extension of Nicklas Luhmann's theory of communication codes to the data and themes results in a reconceptualization of the typical explanations of the social and economic conditions suffered by American inner cities and their residents. By focusing the analysis through such a communication based lens, this research provides both the groundwork for the development of a communicative theory of society, and provides an explanatory structure for the status quo of the socio-economic mainstream while concurrently taking account of the socio-economic margins.