Explain the meaning of the following word combinations

perfect community, New Australia Movement, utopian community, local nonprofit organizations, management skills, low-income residents, municipal governments, inner city, credit unions, “top down” government programs, outstanding success, Nobel Peace Prize.

In the 19th century, the work of the early socialist thinker Robert Owen (1771–1851), sought to create a more perfect community. At New Lanark and at later communities such as Oneida in the USA and the New Australia Movement in Australia, groups of people came together to create utopian or intentional utopian communities, with mixed success.

In the United States in the 1960s, the term "community development" began to complement and generally replace the idea of urban renewal, which typically focused on physical development projects often at the expense of working-class communities. In the late 1960s, philanthropies such as the Ford Foundation and government officials such as Senator Robert F. Kennedy took an interest in local nonprofit organizations – a pioneer was the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation in Brooklyn – that attempted to apply business and management skills to the social mission of uplifting low-income residents and their neighborhoods. Eventually such groups became known as "Community Development Corporations" or CDCs. Federal laws beginning with the 1974 Housing and Community Development Act provided a way for state and municipal governments to channel funds to CDCs and other nonprofit organizations. National organizations such as the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (founded in 1978 and now known as NeighborWorks America), the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (founded in 1980 and known as LISC), and the Enterprise Foundation (founded in 1981) have built extensive networks of affiliated local nonprofit organizations to which they help provide financing for countless physical and social development programs in urban and rural communities. The CDCs and similar organizations have been credited with starting the process that stabilized and revived seemingly hopeless inner city areas such as the South Bronx in New York City.

Community development in Canada has roots in the development of co-operatives, credit unions and caisses populaires. The Antigonish Movement which started in the 1920s in Nova Scotia, through the work of Doctor Moses Coady and Father James Tompkins, has been particularly influential in the subsequent expansion of community economic development work across Canada.

In the 1990s, following critiques of the mixed success of "top down" government programs, and drawing on the work of Robert Putnam, in the rediscovery of Social Capital, community development internationally became concerned with social capital formation. In particular the outstanding success of the work of Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh with the Grameen Bank, has led to the attempts to spread microenterprise credit schemes around the world. This work was honoured by the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
15. Give the answer to the question below.

1. Who sought to create a more perfect community in the 19^th century?

2. What movements in the USA and Australia came together to create utopian communities with mixed success?

3. What idea did the term “community development” begin to replace in the 1960s in the USA?

4. What national organizations have built extensive networks of local nonprofit organizations in urban and rural communities?

5. Where does community development have roots in?

6. What work was honoured by the Nobel Peace Prize?
16. Complete the sentences.

1. In the USA in the 1960s, the term “community development” began to complement the idea of … .

2. Federal laws beginning with … provided a way for … to channel funds to … .

3. The CDCs and similar organizations have been credited with … .

4. CD in Canada has roots in the development of … .

17. Write a summary of the text above.

18. Make a brief report on the topic.

Module 5

Decision making

Vocabulary

1. Read and remember the following words and word-combinations:

mental, several, normative, legal, reasoning, goal, values, cognitive, some, rational, needs, expert, solution, professional, approach, method, purpose, decision.

Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.

Human performance in decision terms has been the subject of active research from several perspectives. From a psychological perspective, it is necessary to examine individual decisions in the context of a set of needs, preferences an individual has and values they seek. From a cognitive perspective, the decision making process must be regarded as a continuous process integrated in the interaction with the environment. From a normative perspective, the analysis of individual decisions is concerned with the logic of decision making and rationality and the invariant choice it leads to.

Yet, at another level, it might be regarded as a problem solving activity which is terminated when a satisfactory solution is found. Therefore, decision making is a reasoning or emotional process which can be rational or irrational, can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions.

Logical decision making is an important part of all science-based professions, where specialists apply their knowledge in a given area to making informed decisions. For example, medical decision making often involves making a diagnosis and selecting an appropriate treatment. Some research using naturalistic methods shows, however, that in situations with higher time pressure, higher stakes, or increased ambiguities, experts use intuitive decision making rather than structured approaches, following a recognition primed decision approach to fit a set of indicators into the expert's experience and immediately arrive at a satisfactory course of action without weighing alternatives. Recent robust decision efforts have formally integrated uncertainty into the decision making process. However, Decision Analysis, recognized and included uncertainties with a structured and rationally justifiable method of decision making since its conception in 1964.

A major part of decision making involves the analysis of a finite set of alternatives described in terms of some evaluative criteria. These criteria may be benefit or cost in nature. Then the problem might be to rank these alternatives in terms of how attractive they are to the decision maker(s) when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Another goal might be to just find the best alternative or to determine the relative total priority of each alternative (for instance, if alternatives represent projects competing for funds) when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Solving such problems is the focus of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) also known as multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). This area of decision making, although it is very old and has attracted the interest of many researchers and practitioners, is still highly debated as there are many MCDA / MCDM methods which may yield very different results when they are applied on exactly the same data. This leads to the formulation of a decision making paradox.

1. What is decision making?

2. From what perspectives has human performance in decision terms been the subject of active research?

3. Why might decision making be regarded as a reasoning or emotional process?

4. What science-based professions can logical decision making be an important part of?

5. What analysis does a major part of decision making involve?

6. What area of decision making has attracted the interest of many researchers and practitioners?

7. What leads to the formulation of a decision making paradox?

physical process, irrational, explicit, certainty, loss, historically, academicians, vague.

1. Decision making can be regarded as … .

2. Every decision making process produces … .

3. From a cognitive process, the decision making process must be regarded as … .

4. Logical decision making is an important part of … .

5. Decision Analysis recognized and included … .

6. A major part of decision making involves the analysis of … .

7. The goal might be … or … .

1. Принятие решений можно рассматривать как ментальный процесс, результатом которого является выбор курса действий среди нескольких альтернатив.

2. Возможности человека в вопросах принятия решений были предметом активных исследований с нескольких точек зрения.

3. С психологической точки зрения необходимо рассматривать индивидуальные решения в контексте набора потребностей, предпочтений и ценностей человека.

4. С когнитивной точки зрения процесс принятия решений следует рассматривать как непрерывный процесс, интегрированный во взаимодействие с окружающей средой.

5. С нормативной точки зрения анализ отдельных решений связан с рациональностью и логикой принятия решений.

6. На другом уровне решение проблемы можно рассматривать как деятельность, которая прекращается, когда будет найдено удовлетворительное решение.

Vocabulary

9. Read and remember the following words and word-combinations:

problem analysis, performance standards, distinctive feature, relevant changes, precisely, deviations, objectives, flipism, becoming, starting, exactly, classified, developed, orientation stage, emergence stage, possibilianism.

1. It is important to differentiate …. problem analysis and decision making. The concepts are completely separate from one another.

2. Problem analysis must be done first, then the information gathered in that process may be used …. decision making.

3. Something can always be used to distinguish …. what has and hasn't been effected by a cause.

4. Causes to problems can be deducted …. relevant changes found in analyzing the problem.

5. The tentative decision is evaluated …. more possible consequences.

It is important to differentiate between problem analysis and decision making. The concepts are completely separate from one another. Problem analysis must be done first, then the information gathered in that process may be used towards decision making.

Problem Analysis.

• Analyze performance, what should the results be against what they actually are.

• Problems are merely deviations from performance standards.

• Problem must be precisely identified and described.

• Problems are caused by some change from a distinctive feature.

• Something can always be used to distinguish between what has and hasn't been effected by a cause.

• Causes to problems can be deducted from relevant changes found in analyzing the problem.

• Most likely cause to a problem is the one that exactly explains all the facts.

Decision Making.

• Objectives must first be established.

• Objectives must be classified and placed in order of importance.

• Alternative actions must be developed.

• The alternative must be evaluated against all the objectives.

• The alternative that is able to achieve all the objectives is the tentative decision.

• The tentative decision is evaluated for more possible consequences.

• The decisive actions are taken, and additional actions are taken to prevent any adverse consequences from becoming problems and starting both systems (problem analysis and decision making) all over again.

Everyday techniques.

Some of the decision making techniques people use in everyday life include:

• Pros and Cons: Listing the advantages and disadvantages of each option, popularized by Plato and Benjamin Franklin

• Simple Prioritization: Choosing the alternative with the highest probability-weighted utility for each alternative (see Decision Analysis) or derivative Possibilianism: Acting on choices so as not to preclude alternative understandings of equal probability, including active exploration of novel possibilities and emphasis on the necessity of holding multiple positions at once if there is no available data to privilege one over the others.

• Satisficing: Accepting the first option that seems like it might achieve the desired result.

• Acquiesce to a person in authority or an "expert", just following orders.

• Flipism: Flipping a coin, cutting a deck of playing cards, and other random or coincidence methods.

• Prayer, tarot cards, astrology, augurs, revelation, or other forms of divination.

Decision-Making Stages.

Developed by B. Aubrey Fisher, there are four stages that should be involved in all group decision making. These stages, or sometimes called phases, are important for the decision-making process to begin.

Orientation stage – this phase is where members meet for the first time and start to get to know each other.

Conflict stage – once group members become familiar with each other, disputes, little fights and arguments occur. Group members eventually work it out.

Emergence stage – the group begins to clear up vague opinions by talking about them.

Reinforcement stage – members finally make a decision, while justifying themselves that it was the right decision.

Decision-Making Steps.

When in an organization and faced with a difficult decision, there are several steps one can take to ensure the best possible solutions will be decided. These steps are put into seven effective ways to go about this decision making process (McMahon 2007).

The first step – outline your goal and outcome. This will enable decision makers to see exactly what they are trying to accomplish and keep them on a specific path.

The second step – gather data. This will help decision makers have actual evidence to help them come up with a solution.

The third step – brainstorm to develop alternatives. Coming up with more than one solution ables you to see which one can actually work.

The fourth step – list pros and cons of each alternative. With the list of pros and cons, you can eliminate the solutions that have more cons than pros, making your decision easier.

The fifth step – make the decision. Once you analyze each solution, you should pick the one that has many pros (or the pros that are most significant), and is a solution that everyone can agree with.

The sixth step – immediately take action. Once the decision is picked, you should implement it right away.

The seventh step – learn from, and reflect on the decision making. This step allows you to see what you did right and wrong when coming up, and putting the decision to use.
14. Revise the terminology of the text:

анализ проблемы, источники проблем, альтернативные действия, предотвратить последствия, повседневная жизнь, высшая полезность, равная вероятность, стадия ориентирования, правильное решение, семь эффективных способов.

1. Why is it important to differentiate between problem analysis and decision making?

2. What steps does problem analysis include?

3. What features of decision making do you know?

4. What decision making techniques people use in everyday life?

5. What stages are important for the decision-making process to begin?

6. What steps one can take to get the best possible solution?
16. Complete the following sentences using the text.

1. It is important to differentiate between … .

2. Problems are caused by … .

3. Objectives must be classified … .

4. The alternative must be evaluated … .

5. Some of the decision making techniques include … .

6. The stages, that important for the decision-making process, are … .

7. Seven effective ways to go about the decision-making process are … .