Measuring sense of community: a view from the streets

Increasing social capital in poor communities has become a common pursuit among policy-makers, social scientists and community practitioners alike. In this paper, we examine one dimension of social capital, sense of community (SOC), and argue that the dominant instruments used by scholars to measure it are limited. We examine qualitative data from surveys, focus groups and interviews with community leaders and residents in Baltimore, Maryland, to understand how community members conceptualize SOC and how they might measure it. We conclude with a discussion about how our findings can inform and strengthen future community-based research and community building initiatives.