Assessing a Community. Social Sciences Assignment.

Assessing a Community
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Assessing a Community
Haas and Hahn describe a community that lies in the North Zone of Rio, known as Vila Cruzeiro, with approximately 60,000 people (Haas & Hahn, 2014). Many individuals in Rio know the community based on the bad news they see on the television. Haas and Hahn call the informal communities in Rio favelas. These communities emerged due to rural-urban migration. In other words, people from the countryside moved to the cities searching for work, which led to the formation of small towns. However, individuals living in these cities face problems, such as poverty, violent drug wars between the gangs and police officers, and the high rate of crime (Haas & Hahn, 2014). The fascinating thing about the favelas is that they have built almost everything using their hands without having a master plan.
Vila Cruzeiro can be based on the contingency theory. In particular, contingency theory entails how groups of individuals access resources, control their lives, and gain power through collective action (Kirst-Ashman, 2014). For example, before Haas and Hahn visited Rio, they were used to doing things in a planned and organized way like they saw in Holland. Nevertheless, they came across the favelas who pursued their tasks without a master plan. Although Vila Cruzeiro was a community with a bad name due to its tarnished image on social media, Haas and Hahn transformed it using art. Painting the hill brought individuals together, and they were happy to have their house plastered and colored.
Vila Cruzeiro had different aspects of the community. First, individuals residing there were used to violence between the drug gangs and the law enforcement authorities. Other people in Rio knew that the community was impoverished and that the rate of crime was very high. Second, favelas were determined to do everything using their hands and without a plan. Third, systems theory significantly changed things for the better in Vila Cruzeiro (Kirst-Ashman, 2014). In other words, residents of thi...