Abstract
The chapter gives account of local associations as a specific social phenomenon and an object of research. It brings overview of the state of reserach on local associations in the world.
More precisely, the core of this chapter elaborates different aspects of local or grassroots associations (LGAs): their life cycles, purposive and analytical types, external linkages and context, internal structure and processes/operations, leadership and management processes, prestige and power-influence and impacts. Research reviewed here suggests many aspects of LGAs that should be considered by founders and leaders of such groups.
For instance, although LGAs tend to be rather small in numbers of members and short-lived, such groups are usually larger and longer-lived if polymorphic, linked to a supra-local, parent association or to some local network. LGAs can successfully achieve a wide variety of goals, so leaders should not feel limited in what their groups seek to do, but any LGA needs to focus on a single key, goal.
New LGAs are more likely to survive and succeed if they enter a new demographic niche in their community, in terms of their member composition, rather than entering a niche already occupied by one of more other LGAs. In this way, the chapter provides a complex overview of the LGAs problematique.