“Everything Here is so Political. …” Separating the Organizationally Normal from the Political in Communities of Organizations

Abstract

The rhetoric of “community” is common in talk of social programs. With it comes imagery of common interests, overcoming turf battles, working together, and getting along. When programs fail to achieve goals or turn into outright fiascos, personal, organizational, and community pathology, or simply “politics” are common explanations. Problems are assumed to be endemic and intractable or remediable only by gifted leadership or transcendence of business as usual. This article argues that such thinking is rooted in a false assumption. “Community” needs to be reconceptualized as a community of organizations, not people, and organizations as constrained actors not analogous to individuals. Organizations interact in peculiar, but analyzable ways, giving rise to unanticipated outcomes that could be labeled pathology or mere politics. Community alcohol and other drug AOD programs might be more successful if their logic models were based on realistic concepts of community that can distinguish the actually political from the organizationally normal.