Puddifoot community identity and juvenile community action orientation

Sense of community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986) and place identity (Proshansky, 1983) are two principle constructs used to examine the relationship between citizen and local community. These constructs, while on the one hand allowing for an exploration of the emotional aspects underlying the link, on the other hand do not provide adequate information on how the individual acts in their context of belonging. Research carried out with 130 young residents of Naples and the surrounding province had the specific objective of shedding light upon the relationship existing between two constructs that the authors consider greatly useful for an understanding of the agency of citizens: community identity – which displays how the individual sees and orientates themselves towards their context – and orientation towards action – which is indicative of the conditions favouring social action. The low correlation scores and the opposite directions found between the dimensions of the Orientation towards action scale (displaying orientation towards action planning) and the community identity scale (showing orientation of an emotional, relational character towards one’s community of belonging) lead to the hypothesis that the two dimensions are independent.