Reconcilable Differences? Human Diversity, Cultural Relativity, and Sense of Community

Sense of community (SOC) is one of the most widely used and studied constructs in community psychology. As proposed by Sarason
in (The Psychological sense of community: prospects for a community psychology, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1974), SOC represents the strength of bonding among community members. It is a valuable component of community life, and it has
been linked to positive mental health outcomes, citizen participation, and community connectedness. However, promotion of
SOC can become problematic in community psychology praxis when it conflicts with other core values proposed to define the
field, namely values of human diversity, cultural relativity, and heterogeneity of experience and perspective. Several commentators
have noted that promotion of SOC can conflict with multicultural diversity because it tends to emphasize group member similarity
and appears to be higher in homogeneous communities. In this paper, we introduce the idea of a community–diversity dialectic as part of praxis and research in community psychology. We argue that systematic consideration of cultural psychology perspectives
can guide efforts to address a community-diversity dialectic and revise SOC formulations that ultimately will invigorate community
research and action. We provide a working agenda for addressing this dialectic, proposing that systematic consideration of
the creative tension between SOC and diversity can be beneficial to community psychology.