COMMUNITY

"Community: The origin of the word "community" comes from the Latin munus, which means the
gift, and cum, which means together, among each other. So community literally means to live
among each other.“
Simply put, society could be best described as the way we do things, and, community is who we
do those things with.
DEFINITIONS
 A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
 According to Lund Berg “Community is a living population with in a limited geographical
area carrying on a common interdependent.”
 Manheim says, “Community is a group or collection of groups that inhabits a locality.
 According to Kingsley Davis, Community is the smallest territorial group that can embrace
all aspects of social life,”
 According to Ferdinard Tonnies: A community is an organic, natural kind of social group
whose members are bound together by a sense of belonging, created out of everyday
contacts covering the whole range of human activities.
 According to Talcott Parsons: A community may be defined as a group or collection of
groups that inhabit a delimited geographical area and whose members live together in such
away they share the basic conditions of common life.
ELEMENTS/CHARACTERISTICS
Locality- It is the physical basis of community. Without territory and area there can be
no community. A group of people forms community only when it begins to reside in a definite
locality.
A community is more or less locally limited. Locality continues to be a basic factor of community.
Community sentiment- People in the community feel more or less the same sentiments and acting
upon the same attitude. People have frequent face to face contacts with one another. From such
contacts each person knows a great deal about his neighbors, their activities, preferences
and attitudes.
Common way of life- People in the community share the basic conditions of common life and
reside in a definite locality. It is the total organization of social life in the area.
Common interest- Life in communities facilitates people to develop social contacts, gives
protection, safety and security. It helps the members to promote and fulfil their common interests.
Feeling of oneness- Created as a result of collective participation in the affair and prevalent mode
of life in the community.
There grows a sense of mutual identification of the hopes and aspirations of his members. This
gives rise to a feeling of oneness within a particular community.
Stability- Communities are relatively stable. It includes a permanent group life in a definite place.
Size of the community- though there are large metropolitan communities, also there are very little
communities too and some are not much larger than those of the hunting and gathering cultures.
System of rules and regulations- each community has a system of tradition, customs,
morals, practices, to regulate the relations of it members and also it creates a feeling of identity
and solidarity among the people in the community.
Types of Community
 Rural Community:
 Urban Community
 Suburban Community
Rural Community
A community is called rural if it is located in the country
 there are less than 2,500 people
 farms and homes are far apart
 the majority of people depend on agriculture
 transportation carries small groups of people
 Cars, trucks, tractors, etc.
Urban Community
A community is called urban if
 it is located in a large town or city
 there are more than 2,500 people
 homes and apartments are close together
 the majority of people depend on industry and business
 transportation carries large groups of people
 Trolleys, subways, buses, etc.

Suburban Community
 A community is called suburban if
 it is located near the outskirts of a large town or city
 homes are close together
  the majority of people depend the work in the cities
 People living in suburbs work in the city and have transportation to get to work

Difference between Rural and Urban Communities

Rural Urban
Environment: Close / direct contact with Greater isolation from nature. Predominance
nature. Preliminaries influenced by natural of manmade (artificial environment).
environmental elements like rain, heat,
drought, frost, sow etc. over which there is no
control.

Occupation: Agricultural is the fundamental No fundamental occupation. Most of people

occupation. Majority of population is engaged engaged in principally in manufacturing,
in agriculture. Neighbors of Agriculturist are mechanical pursuits, trade commerce,
also agriculturist professions and other non-agricultural
occupations.

Size of Community: Size of community is very Size of community is large in size. Urbanity
small in size. Agriculturalism and size of and size of community are positively co-
community are negatively co-related. related.

Density of Population: Density of population Density is high

is lower. Density and rurality are negatively
co-related.
More heterogeneous than rural. Urbanity and
Homogeneity and heterogeneity of population: heterogeneity are positively co-related
More homogenous in social, racial and (Different type of population is seen in cities,
psychological traits. Negative co0-relation different places, religions, caste, class race,
with heterogeneity. (Most are agriculturists are community, economic and cultural
directly connected with agriculture). differences, occupations and behavioral
pattern also different).

Social Differentiations: Low degree of social High degree of social differentiation

differentiation

Social Stratification: More rigid Fewer Less rigid Urban community is much more
economic, occupational, and socio-political strategic than the rural with having much more
classes. Less social stratification than urban. economic, occupational and social political
classes.

Social Interaction: Less numerous contacts. More numerous contacts. Area of interactions
The area of interaction system is narrower. is wider, the relation are superficial and short-
lived. The popular are more formal and showy.
More professional, simple, face to face.
Informal, sincere relations.

Social Solidarity: Social solidarity or Social solidarity is less stronger than rural,
cohesiveness and unity are more stronger / dissimilarities, division of labour,
greater than urban. Common traits, similarity interdependence, specialization, impersonal,
of experiences, common aims and purposes, strictly formal relationships results
common customs and traditions are the basis comparatively less sense of belonging and
of unity in village. Strong sense of belonging unity.
and unity.

COMMUNITY SOCIETY
Population is one of the most essential Population is important but here the population
characteristics of a community irrespective of is conditioned by a feeling of oneness. Thus
the consideration whether people have or do conscious relations are more important than
not have conscious relations. the mere population for a society.

A community by nature is discrete as By nature and character society is abstract.

compared with society.

For community area or locality is very Society is area less and shapeless and for a
essential and that perhaps is the reason that the society area is no consideration.
community had a definite shape.

A community has comparatively narrow scope A society has heterogeneity and because of its
of community sentiments and as such it cannot wide scope and field can embrace people
have wide heterogeneity. having different conflicts.

The scope of community is narrow than that of The society has much wider scope as
society because community came much later compared with the community.
than the society. Though the primitive people
might not have understood the importance of
community but they realized that of the society
and lived in it.

In a community every effort is made to avoid In a society likeness and conflict can exist side
differences or conflicts and to bring likeness as by side and in fact the scope of society is so
nearly as possible because cooperation and vast that there is every possibility of
conflicts cannot exist in a community. adjustment.

A community cannot be self sufficient because It is possible for a society to become self-
of its limited scope, nature and it is more or less sufficient. In fact every society tries to throw
impossible in our modern complex society. bonds of dependency to the extent possible.