Definitions of Community
Trying to study community is like trying to scoop up jello with your fingers. You can get ‘hold of some, but there’s always more slipping away from you–Marcia Pelly Effrat, 1974:1.
I think it is important that we understand what community is before we talk about the intricacies of community organization. I will provide a little of the history of the term first. Next, I will describe the complexity of community as a concept and how particular disciplines analyze community. What “makes up” a community—some common ingredients will be presented next. Finally, I will briefly discuss four basic orientations scholars and others have about community. I will also mention the role of inductive process in understanding community.
History and Approaches to Community Concept
Although the concept “Community” has probably been around as long as communities, the term has changed in meaning over time and from one culture to the next. For the Greeks, according to Delanty (2003) community (koinonia) was “local,” “particular” and ancestor oriented. The Roman concept of communitas probably fits better with what contemporary Western notions of community. Communitas is Latin for belong to a group. The rise of Christianity brought a new way of thinking about community as something broader than a local area—in fact universal and cosmopolitan. For many of these early Christians, community was something to come. It was the Kingdom of God on earth or a beloved community.[1] This rhetoric is quite powerful in mobilizing religious leaders and their followers towards progressive change in the community.
Delanty (2003) points out that people tend to view community in different ways. Some people feel that community is lost. This “Going-to-Hell in a Handbasket” mentality is oriented on the past, oftentimes imagined, rather than the present or future. You may remember that many of the founders of our discipline were of this persuasion. Another group of people believe that community can be salvaged. If we conserve or delineate what is “us” versus what is “them” we may hold on to community. This way of thinking is linked to conservatism and nationalism. Finally, the rise of intentional communities (AKA communes) in the 1960s-1970s as well as a lot of Marxian philosophy rest on the assumption that some people have that community is something yet to come. I tend to view community changing, not something lost or gained. Keep your antennas focused because political rhetoric usually swirls around these three assumptions.
Complexity of Community Concept
In a 1955 review of the literature, George Hillery found ninety-four separate definitions of community! Why? Social Science concepts of greatest importance often tend to be imprecise. Related terms tend to be too broad or fuzzy as well. These are words such as community organization, action, development, interaction patterns, institutions, and capacity. Furthermore, scholars have competing paradigms and measures.
Depending on the discipline the definition and focus changes what is community changes. Sociologists tend to look at Neighborhoods, the small town, or spatially bounded locality. Anthropologists might study culturally defined groups whereas political scientists focus on citizenship, self government, civil society & collective identity. Other scholars may prefer to examine the philosophy and history behind community as an ideology or utopia. Nowadays, the reliance of one discipline to study community issues requires a broad, interdisciplinary approach (Delanty 2003).
Returning to the ambiguity in the community concept, Hillery’s analysis of community definitions resulted in 94 definitions derived from review of ancient and more literature about community. From this, Hillery found that about 73 percent of the definitions mentioned geography, shared interests/identities, and the relationships between members (Lyon 1999:5). After reviewing the of Hillery’s findings, Larry Lyon (1999:5) came up with this definition of community: “people living within a specific area, sharing common ties, and interacting with one another.”
Our ideas about community have been impacted by our changing values as well as rise of technology and mass communication. In the past, community tight-knit and centered on the family and primary groups (Gemeinschaft). These interactions tended to be horizontal, that is, they took on the form of personal, face-to-face encounters characteristic of primary groups. In today’s world, community may mean just a group of people with similar interests. Examples are community of runners, haggis eaters, and bottle collectors. We have more contact with people outside our primary group (Gesellschaft). These are employers, professors, and even the tax assessor. Interactions may be more vertical (more formal and based on hierarchies and power). Technologies such as Facebook extend our connections even farther beyond the house, neighborhood, and workplace. For some community is about these types of relationships.
According to Gerrard Delanty (2003) there are four broad positions about community. Some people see community within the context of community development. For others, their sense of belonging is based on some type of identity. This seems to be the case for President Obama when he was a community organizer (Obama 2007). Some people focus on political action and social movement techniques. Finally, some people focus on how the interaction between technology and community. For instance, what role do cell phones, Facebook, and other contemporary technologies have on how we interact with each other in the neighborhood?
Methodologically speaking, the inductive approach is encouraged by a number of authors in the study of community. The inductive approach begins with observations one collects that then lead to theoretical statements. Wilkinson (1999:21) wrote “With an inductive method, the community is something to be discovered, as are its elements and characteristics. Discovery requires detailed study of the social life of people.”
[1] Much more recently, beloved community as a concept was formally linked to levels of loyalty by Josiah Royce. He believed the highest form of loyalty was to one’s community. When all people strived towards this highest form of loyalty, humankind would be approaching beloved community.
Sources
Bender, Thomas. 1986. Community and Social Change in America. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Delanty, Gerard. 2003. Community. 1st ed. Routledge
Fischer, Claude S. 1982. To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City. University of Chicago Press.
Fullilove, Mindy. 2005. Root Shock. New York, NY: One World/Ballantine.
Hillery Jr., George A. 1955. “Definitions of Community: Areas of Agreement.” Rural Sociology 20:111-123.
Kempers, Margot. 2001. Community Matters: An Exploration of Theory and Practice. Chicago: Burnham Publishers.
Lyon, Larry. 1999. The Community in Urban Society. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.
Obama, Barack. 2007. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. 1st ed. New York: Crown Publishers.
Rubin, Herbert J., and Irene S. Rubin. 2008. Community Organizing and Development. 4th ed. Needham Heights, Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.
Wilkinson, Kenneth P. 1988. “A Field-Theory Perspective for Community Development Research” in Warren, Roland L., and Larry Lyon, eds. 1988. New Perspectives on the American Community. 5th ed. Belmont, California: Wadsworth.
Wilkinson, Kenneth P. 1999. The Community in Rural America. Middleton, Wisconsin: Social Ecology Press.
Tmkersen's Blog 
After reading “Root Shock” by Mindy Fullilove-Thompson, I have become more aware of the importance of community, in the sense of a neighborhood. I realize now that people want better living conditions without sacrificing their way of life and their connections. It was so sad to read about folks being stripped of their spirit of communty by the planned dispersal of whole communities. I also do not support segregation in any form, but I often think of what was lost in the Black community following desegregation. When I hear people say “we have not arrived,” I know they are speaking economically and materially. However, I am sure this is not the “Beloved Community” envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King in his mountain top speech. It has always been a catch 22 situation. It has been either, or…..but never both at the same time. I have lived in desegregated communities where there is extreme poverty, and there is a strong sense of community where people support and help each other. I have also lived in very affluent neighborhoods and never knew who my neighbors were. The dream has not been realized.
Some times I think that people deliberately over look what’s going on arround them and particularly in their communities. I come from a small,close knitted nieghborhood,white and black. We shared, took care, looked out and loved one another and whenever there was a lost everyone grieved and even to this day we keep track and in touch especially with our older heads. I can even tell you how many older peoples are left. But to see the communties today, sadden me deeply, because of those who suffered and gave their lives so we could have that life, unity, not seperate, not unconcern. But I work every day on making sure I give a part of me and more by giving, participating and putting back.
I’ m glad to have learn where the word or definition of “community ” came from. Last week end we had a our mother and my sibblins’ retreat and I used this as my trivia question and no one knew, but I did, thanks Dr. Kersen (LOL).
Community is a tough topic to grapple with, because everyone has their own opinion of what community is. After speaking with people such as Dave Dennis, a civil right activist who was documented in the Eyes on the Prize, and other people who are several years my senior, I tend to agree with their perception of community. The elders spoke about a time where everyone in the neighborhood not only knew everyone, but they cared for everyone. No one went hungry, because other neighbors would share with the hungry. I believe technology is hindering the concept of community. Sure social network allows one to communicate with people globally, but intimacy and compassion is tough to develop when you are not communicating with people face to face. Technology is the diminishing the concept of the family and the concept of community-the two most important social institutions that is vital to human development.
I reread your notes on community so I could start on my final paper. I stumbled across the meaning of community in Latin, which is communitas of belonging to a group. As I start my reflections and writing my paper, I decided to look the word up in the Sociology dictionary, and I find the definition to mean “the sense of sharing and intimacy that develops among persons who experience liminality as a group”. This is what we feel when we become a part of a community, we humble ourselves and start to give back. We are transforming that person or community lives. The difference can be small or it can be huge. When we give of our time and talents someone, or somebody life has or can be changed. Community has many definitions as you stated, but the most important one to me, is a sense of belonging.
Wow, insightful comment Carol.