ABSTRACT
A demarcation must exist between community leaders and non-leaders; leaders must have followers. Typically, community leaders are identified through specific attributes, positions, skills etc.—element in the psychology of community leadership development. However, to create sustainable leadership and community development, communities need to consistently mobilize resources through collective action. To do this, an established system of information networks and a method for allocating organized efforts in the community need to be in place. Thus, besides functional leaders, communities also need a functional leadership structure—the sociology of community leadership. We examined the network density, size, and organizational memberships of identified community leaders and other residents in two rural Missouri communities. Leaders had larger, more dense, and diffuse networks, and more organizational memberships than other residents. The structure of community leadership is as important and real as the psychology of leadership and a key to developing sustainable community development strategies.
