Community of trust: A socio-cultural approach for community planning and the case of Gaza

This paper defines Community of Trust as socio-spatial settings in which there are substantial trust relationships among people and where they feel defended (safe) from internal risks. Our scheme suggests five categories of conditions that together create Communities of Trust: Shared place, shared daily-life practices, shared basic beliefs, and shared perceptions of community interests and risks. This scheme was examined in five communities in Gaza city. Data were collected first by informal talks with residents and local decision-makers and then by means of 973 personal interviews in residents' homes. Undoubtedly, the human conditions of the people of Gaza are among the worst in the world. Living conditions in the city have been difficult for the past century due to a number of factors, including: waves of incoming Palestinian refugees of the War of 1948, and decades of Israeli occupation. In spite of difficult housing conditions, poor services and the pressure of lasting internal risks, this study found livable communities and strong trust relationships among people of Gaza's communities. This article explains this by the high levels of agreement on basic beliefs, the shared daily-life practices, the strong shared perception towards external risks and a few common interests, which were found within each studied area. The last part of the paper is related to the issues of generalizing from the case of homogeneous urban community in Gaza to the frequently heterogeneous communities of Western cities. This study concludes that trust relationships are the corner-stone upon which communities are based anywhere in the world. Hence, in order to sustain communities, planners should support trust relationships among residents. This requires culture-sensitive planning.