Purposive community change in consensus and dissensus situations

Thirty-five cases of purposive social change at the community level were studied with two principal objectives: first, to see whether the strategies of change varied according to whether the action was characterized by basic agreement among the principal parties (consensus) or by disagreement (dissensus); second, to see whether other factors, such as type of goal, size of community, leadership stance, goal outcome, etc., varied in consensus and dissensus situations. The findings indicate that purposive change has markedly different characteristics in situations of consensus or dissensus. These differences may be important for persons seeking to develop new programs at the community level.