Abstract
Colonias are rural, substandard housing developments in South Texas. They suffer from deplorable living conditions, often without running water or sewage systems, unpaved roads and extreme poverty. Yet service providers and researchers have observed remarkable unity and cohesion among residents, prompting them to attribute a strong "sense of community" to these neighborhoods. This study compares cognitive evaluations of sense of community and territorial evidence to identify elements of the physical environment that may facilitate the development of a sense of community in two rural colonia communities. The theory underlying a relationship between sense of community and territoriality suggests that territorial functioning reflects the same types of attitudes that lead to a sense of community. It is apparent from these results that colonias exhibit both a positive sense of community and some evidence of territorial functioning. However, the evidence does not seem to support a relationship between the two. For a positive finding to have been made, the attitude inherent in a sense of community had to have met stringent requirements to be translated into a discernible behavior. Due to cultural differences, observers of territorial behaviors may not have been able to interpret physical traces left behind by territorial functioning. It appears that other characteristics of these residents, specifically their extreme poverty, may moderate the relationship. Colonia residents have few resources available to effect changes in the physical appearance of the home.
Van Zandt, Shannon (1997). Exploring the relationship between sense of community and territoriality in the colonias. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1997 -THESIS -V366.