Civility: The Key to a Fully-Functioning Society - Research Paper

Introduction

Civility can be understood as the ability for members of a community to act respectfully among themselves by fostering shared expectations and achieving a fully-functioning society. This civility is often described as respect for others, a respect for the feelings of others, and, ultimately, unconditionally doing to and for others what we would have done unconditionally for ourselves (Gillingham & Graham 190). A person illustrating civility is empathic, helping, giving, and sensitive human being who genuinely recognizes the dignity, worth, and value of others.

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Social coexistence implies, first of all, tolerance. It is the diversity of cultures and their manifestations that make society an environment that enables individuals to improve themselves as human beings. Civility, therefore, intends to promote a discourse aimed at the common good. Civility is a vital virtue that requires all citizens to express goodwill among themselves, being shown in positions of tolerance and respect, including due diligence to truly show the actual positions of the counterpart itself. In social work, this goodwill, according to the context, must make its case in a prudent and, therefore, proportionate manner to promote the common good ( Bhuyan, Bejan & Jeyapal 375).

Civility is the virtue that underscores the proper functioning of their societies. In community social work, the active participation of community members is sought. When talking about civility or civilization, it does not necessarily mean facing a utopia. Instead, it is about finding within the technological and economic progress traits of a society that is tolerant and respectful of differences, that knows how to approach problems from the perspective of the common good. Beyond technology, the development of sciences for more human development must have a hold on disciplines that have to do with this knowledge and develop it. It is in this sense that the disciplines that have as object of study the human being (such as social and human sciences) are the protagonists.

As Garrett (112) points out, without the development of social work, there would be no historical legacy and scientific heritage that allow improving social interventions and making them increasingly relevant and replicable, in terms of good practices and to generate studies that enable us to understand the phenomenon better. It is not surprising that being such a young discipline, there is not a high level of development that allows overcoming cultural barriers to make possible the replication of successful interventions in different nations and communities. However, since they are human sciences, it is understood that their identity and fundamentals are still under construction.

Every individual is a social being. And 'Social Being' is one who lives in a group, belongs to the community, belongs to a Nation, and belongs to the Planet. It is true that planet Earth is plunged into an ocean of cosmic vibrations and suffers the consequences - some positive, some negative. This however does not justify the extreme ups and downs of individual behavior. Human beings are rational beings. Every day we see the exacerbated attitude of individualist extremists wanting to level others in the name of the 'social' for their benefit.

On the other hand, we see each other fighting in an irrational, exclusive, radical attitude for whatever reason - from the most futile desire for 'freedom' to do wrong, to the most complex ones that include ideological and religious impositions (Natale, Di Martino, Procentese & Arcidiacono 56). Thus, it is essential to know how the foundations of community social work are constituted, new approaches, how new links are included, how are social networks and volunteers. It pursues the integral development that must rise above the economic and global aspect, and that only seems possible with community participation.

Civility and Social Works

Civility is not a matter of education, but proportionality; it is not a rigid virtue in its rules, but virtue of moderation (Gillingham & Graham 188). Community social work, as currently conceptualized, has had many variants. It is defined as a social intervention in the same area of the community. However, it is still a field with foundations that make controversy not only to its non-professional citizen advocates but to professionals trained in these disciplines. There are known references for community social work since 1817 and 1860 in the United States and England, respectively, with organizations called Cooperating Peoples of Robert Owen and Charity Organization Society. The New Harmony Foundation created the first with the intention of making the life of industries and factories become a more human life without differences in social classes. The second was a private charity organization that aimed to reduce the poverty of English workers. In 1884 the movements of the establishments were created, which tried to educate adults in London through young people. The intention was to confront the latter with society and teach them the actual problems and needs of it (Adjibolosoo).

Community social work is characterized by being framed within the conception of social and human discipline (Baldwin). It is also characterized by having an empirical and practical training. It is essential to get society involved; if not, there can be no social integration. Cultural and humanistic values support it, centered on the person and positioned based on respect for the dignity of the social being. It is also characterized by being responsible; it is based on empathy and the conviction that ethics should be what drives the practice of the community social worker (Doel & Shardlow). Through community social work, it must be understood that communities have the necessary resources to meet their own needs. It can occur in different spheres: local, state, or national, and even combining these scenarios. None of the positive effects will be possible if the essential characteristic is not available: the presence of volunteering, which is a condition of humanitarian disposition.

Community social work seeks the social welfare of the population. Among the main functions, it is vital to create spaces and processes that serve to enhance the resources and skills of the people who make up the community (Gillingham & Graham 203). The idea of this is that from the community itself, the different options come out to develop integrally without exclusion. It can be said that its fundamental objective is to coexist in peace, respecting the dignity of the other, and guaranteeing the civil rights that are established. This goal is feasible from the ethical vision of living and coexisting, and not only includes societies or nations in open warfare, as this is a general objective that has become a priority given the increasingly absent social ethics in the world.

Like any social discipline, community social work has to follow a methodology that allows replicating and strategically making possible the pursuit of objectives. Emphasis should be placed on the use of techniques that depend on the community participating, integrating, recognizing, and discovering its resources, and mobilizing them towards the achievement of their development (Garrett 115). The methodology of community development, as this intervention is also called, is made up of the following aspects: Study of reality, Activity plan, Execution or social action, and Subsequent evaluation of the executed (Baldwin). These phases or aspects must be immersed in a macro methodology that responds to the following theoretical foundations: systemic analysis, dialogue, communication, and elaboration of a joint plan. The above is what will make it possible to mobilize efforts from within the community, always with the support of the community social worker but depending on the objective of the community.

Demands of Civility in Social Policies

Civility claims to establish a pleasant coexistence between individuals living together. Conventions facilitate interactions in social life. That is why when someone, perhaps from another country or from another culture, ignores the rules of courtesy; they often encounter difficulties. First, any community social work must seek to restore citizenship by making social groups aware that they must recognize themselves as citizens with duties and rights, and thus regain their social and civic rights (Garrett 115).

On the other hand, through community social work, it is necessary to mobilize and restore the social bond. All this must be done based on a kind of "contract" of social intervention, in which the community enables the social worker to intervene in their affairs (Garrett 115). There is a wide range of possibilities open to professionals who work directly on the so-called social issues. In various community areas, social work can be developed. For example, there are health programs that cover specific needs in this area or housing programs for people who are in an emergency due to an event, natural disaster, or street situations.

The social worker can choose from a multitude of areas or themes to intervene, selected according to their historical trajectory and professional formation (Arensberg). These areas are constituted from the historical moment and the conditions determined by the production of material life. In this way, the social worker can choose to intervene in the public or private sphere, and within them, attend to the child, the adolescent, the adult, the elderly, prisoners, women, among other possibilities. In these areas, civility, in most cases, is based on the knowledge acquired in the academic formation in a gradual and globalized manner. To understand each segment, it is up to the social worker to deepen the understanding of each specific area to ensure a professional practice with a greater theoretical basis (Turner & Maschi 153). For instance, concerning the "women" segment, in many situations, this professional faces family conflicts, domestic violence, and female depression, among other issues that could be stated, and that concern the female problem. Caring for women who have these and other issues often require surveying their family life, including the process of formation and education they experience throughout their lives within the confines of civility.

While working with a given population, the social worker can investigate the issues pertinent to this segment, analyzing both the needs posed to them at the end of the twentieth century, as well as verify them in other historical moments. When performing this historical rescue in different societies, the professional gradually compose the theoretical framework needed to intervene critically, using other disciplines that analyze the female situation in other historical conditions, to understand and analyze the challenges affecting the community in a given time. In other words, social workers provide education within the social services, although not being educators (education professionals), as well as parents, priests and nuns, men and women from the media: changing people's thinking and feeling so that they act differently in the world; change thinking /pressing to improve practice. (Bhuyan et al. 386). In a way, the social worker handles education without often realizing it. In this process, this professional acts to modify behaviors and attitudes of users of social services, as well as deals directly with users who inevitably went through educational processes in the family, school, and society.

Conclusion

The social work community is related to the actions taken within a particular community to promote its positive transformation. The relevance of this action derives from the fact that the existence of a constructive community is fundamental to the development of...