Community

• 1. Defining Social Units

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  A community is a social unit, which means it is simply a group of people. This group shares socially significant characteristics that bind them together. These shared traits can be place, norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area like a country, village, town, or neighborhood. They also exist in virtual space through communication platforms. Durable good relations extend beyond immediate genealogical ties to define this sense of community. Such bonds are important to people's identity and their roles in social institutions. These institutions include family, home, work, government, society, or humanity at large. Although communities are usually small relative to personal social ties, the term refers to large-group affiliations too. National communities, international communities, and virtual communities all fall under this definition. In terms of sociological categories, a community can seem like a sub-set of a social collectivity. In developmental views, a community can emerge out of a collectivity. The English-language word community derives from the Old French commune. It comes from the Latin communitas meaning public spirit. This root traces back to the Latin communis for common.

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• 2. Archaeological Reconstructions

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  Archaeologists use material culture to identify ancient settlements and social interactions. They employ two meanings for the term community in their studies. The first is an informal definition as a place where people used to live. In this literal sense it is synonymous with the concept of an ancient settlement. A hamlet, village, town, or city fits this description perfectly. The second meaning resembles usage in other social sciences. Here a community is a group of people living near one another who interact socially. Social interaction on a small scale can be difficult to identify with archaeological data. Most reconstructions rely on the principle that social interaction was conditioned by physical distance. Therefore a small village settlement likely constituted a social community. Spatial subdivisions of cities may have formed communities within larger urban areas. Archaeologists typically use similarities in material culture to reconstruct these past groups. House types and styles of pottery serve as key indicators. This classification method assumes people share more similarities in goods than outsiders do. Marcello A. Canuto and Jason Yaeger edited The Archaeology of Communities in 2000. Michelle Hegmon published Concepts of Community in Archaeological Research in 2002. These works explore how researchers interpret ancient social structures through physical evidence found in the ground.

• 3. Ecological Interactions

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  In ecology a community is an assemblage of populations potentially of different species interacting with one another. Community ecology studies interactions between and among species. It considers how such interactions affect social structure and species richness. Patterns of abundance also change based on these biological relationships. Species interact in three primary ways: competition, predation, and mutualism. Competition typically results in a double negative where both species lose in the interaction. Predation involves a win-lose situation with one species winning over the other. Mutualism sees both species co-operating in some way so both win. Major communities are self-sustaining and self-regulating like a forest or a lake. Minor communities rely on other communities like fungi decomposing a log. These minor units act as building blocks for major communities. Non-taxonomic subdivisions include guilds within the biocenosis. A simplified example shows interaction between the zebra and the bush. Another interaction occurs between the lion and the zebra. Birds interact with organisms by the water like worms. This web of life defines the ecological community structure. The study of these dynamics helps scientists understand biodiversity and environmental stability across different ecosystems worldwide.

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• 4. Philosophical Debates

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  European philosophers began to raise concerns about how community has been traditionally conceived in the West. They questioned whether closed exclusionary models were suitable for our globalized world. Jean-Luc Nancy started this debate with his book The Inoperative Community published in 1991. Maurice Blanchot followed with The Unavowable Community in 1988. Giorgio Agamben wrote The Coming Community which appeared in 1993. Roberto Esposito contributed Communitas: The Origin and Destiny of Community in 2010. These thinkers attempted to reconceptualize community in an open and inclusive manner instead of abandoning belonging. Nancy revised his theory in Being Singular Plural released in 2000. He delivered reflections on the terms and motifs in The Disavowed Community in 2016. Zygmunt Bauman published Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World in 2001. Greg Bird wrote Containing Community: From Political Economy to Ontology in 2016. Miranda Joseph authored Against the Romance of Community in 2002. Alphonso Lingis explored The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common in 1994. These works challenge traditional views while seeking new ways to understand social bonds.

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• 5. Sense Of Belonging

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  A seminal study by McMillan and Chavis in 1986 identified four elements of sense of community. Membership means feeling of belonging or sharing a sense of personal relatedness. Influence involves mattering and making a difference to a group. It also concerns how much the group matters to its members. Reinforcement covers integration and fulfillment of needs within the collective. Shared emotional connection binds these elements together into a cohesive whole. A Sense of Community Index was developed by Chavis and colleagues to measure this feeling. This index has been adapted for use in schools, the workplace, and various types of communities. Studies conducted by the American Psychological Association indicate that young adults who feel a sense of belonging develop fewer psychiatric disorders. They suffer less from depressive disorders than those without the feeling of love and belonging. Small communities often provide stronger feelings of belonging than larger groups do. The index helps researchers assess psychological well-being across different social environments globally.

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• 6. Development And Organizing

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  Community development is often linked with community work or community planning involving stakeholders and foundations. Governments and contracted entities including non-government organizations participate in progress. Universities and government agencies help advance social well-being of local regional and national communities. Grassroots efforts called community building seek to empower individuals and groups of people. These efforts provide skills needed to effect change in their own communities. Such skills assist in building political power through formation of large social groups working for a common agenda. Public administrators understand community development in context of rural and urban development housing and economic development. Formal accredited programs conducted by universities build knowledge bases to drive curricula in public administration. The General Social Survey from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago tracks these trends. The Saguaro Seminar at the Harvard Kennedy School serves as another example of national community development in the United States. The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University offers core courses in community and economic development. In the United Kingdom the University of Oxford leads extensive research through its Community Development Journal used worldwide by sociologists. The Asset Based Community Development Institute of Northwestern University makes downloadable tools available to assess community assets. This institute focuses on helping communities develop by mobilizing neighborhood assets rather than coming from outside in.

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• 7. Virtual Networks

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  Virtual communities value knowledge and information as currency or social resource. What differentiates virtual communities from physical counterparts is the extent and impact of weak ties. Weak ties are relationships acquaintances or strangers form to acquire information through online networks. Relationships in a virtual community tend to focus on information exchange about specific topics. A survey conducted by Pew Internet and The American Life Project in 2001 found those involved in entertainment professional and sports virtual-groups focused activities on obtaining information. An epidemic of bullying and harassment has arisen from the exchange of information between strangers especially among teenagers. Sheri Bauman professor of counselling at the University of Arizona claims most effective strategies to prevent bullying may cost companies revenue despite attempts to implement anti-bullying policies. Virtual Internet-mediated communities can interact with offline real-life activity potentially forming strong and tight-knit groups such as QAnon. These digital spaces create new forms of association that challenge traditional definitions of belonging while offering unprecedented connectivity across vast distances.

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