The Constitution of Community: How Individuals Diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Their Friends Achieved Community

This article describes a qualitative research project, based on a grounded theory design, that addressed the processes involved in how individuals with schizophrenia were able to use their own abilities to form a self-authored community. The article offers a perspective on community integration that takes into account the importance of relationships, and in the case of individuals with schizophrenia, the importance of day-to-day relationships. The assumption is that the constitution of community is an outcome of the processes involved in learning and practicing being social (Cohen 1985, p. 15). These relationships do not necessarily have to be strong or numerous in order for community integration to be realized. In this article it is argued that an element in the establishment of such relationships for individuals with schizophrenia is the ready availability of others on a day-to-day basis. Relationships and friendships grew for individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia when such access occurred in a place where the context of what was likely to happen in an interaction was relatively well understood.