COMMUNITY
Community is a geographic area having common centres of interests and activities. It
is essentially an area of social living, marked by some degree of social coherence. It is a
circle in which common life is living. Community includes in itself all social relationships, a
variety of institutions and associations. Hence, it is the total organization of social life within
a limited space. Examples: village, town, tribe, city, district.
“Community is a social group with some degree of "we-feeling" and living in a given
area” - Bogardus
“Community is the smallest territorialss group that can embrace all aspects of social
life” - Kingsley Davis
“A community is a group or collection of groups that inhibits a locality” - Ogburn
and Nimkoff
ELEMENTS OF COMMUNITY
(1) Locality: A community is a territorial group. It always occupies some geographic area.
Locality is the physical basis of community. Even the wandering tribe or a nomad
community, for e.g. has a locality, though changing habitation. A group of people forms
community only when it begins to reside in a definite locality.
Living together facilitates people to develop social contacts, gives protection, safety
and security. It helps the members to promote and fulfill their common interests. Most
communities are settled and derive from the conditions of their locality a strong bond of
solidarity.
In modern times the local bond of community is weakened by the development of the
means of transport and communication. The physical factors such as fertile soil, minerals,
forests, fisheries, water resources, vegetation, weather, climate, etc, conditions or influence
the lives of community members in several ways.
(2) Community Sentiment: Sometimes, people residing in the same area may not have
contacts and communications. For example, people living in different extensions of a city
may lack sufficient social contacts. They may not have common outlook and share no
common interests. A community is essentially an area of common living with a feeling of
belonging. There must be the common living with its awareness of sharing a way of life as
well as the common earth.
Community sentiment means a feeling of belonging together. The members must be
aware of their staying together and sharing common interests. The members develop a sense
of we-feeling. It means a kind of identification, a sense of awareness, a sense of living and
sharing some common interests in life, there cannot be any community.
Other aspects of Community:
(1) Stability: A community is not a temporary group like a crowd or a mob. It is
relatively stable. It includes a permanent group life in a definite place.
(2) Naturalness: Communities normally became established in a natural way. They
are not deliberately created. They are not made or created by an act of will or by planned
efforts. Individuals become its members by birth itself. Membership, hence, is not voluntary.
(3) Size of the Community: A community may be big or small. A small community
may be included in a wider community. A city and a village may be included in a wider
community called the district. Hence, there are communities within communities. District, as
a big community may enclose small communities like villages, towns, cities, tribes, etc.
(4) Regulation of Relations: Every community develops in course of time, a system
of traditions, customs, morals, practices; a bundle of rules and regulations to regulate the
relations of its members. But in modern times, the nature of community sentiment is
gradually changing. Today, the interests of men are diverse and complex. Their attachment
towards their community is gradually fading.
Differences between Society and Community
Society Community
1 Society is a web of social relationships. 1 Community consists of a group of
individuals living in a particular area
with some degree of ‘we-feeling’.
2 A definite geographic area is not an 2 Community always denotes a definite
essential aspect of society. locality or geographic area.
3 Society is abstract. 3 Community is concrete.
4 ‘Community sentiment’ or a sense of 4 ‘Community sentiment’ is an essential
‘we-feeling’ may be present or may not element of community. There can be no
be present in society. community in its absence.
5 Society is wider. There can be more 5 Community is smaller than society.
than one community in a society.
6 The objectives and interests of society 6 The objectives and interests of a
are more extensive and varied. community are comparatively less
extensive and varied.
7 Society involves both likeness and 7 Likeness is more important than
difference. Common interests as well as difference in community. There is
diverse interests are present in society. common agreement of interests and
objectives on the part of members.
