According to Scott Peck, may be described as "a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to 'rejoice together, mourn together,' and to 'delight in each other, make each others' conditions [their] own.'" [Drum, Simon and Schuster, 1988, p. 59.]

Spatial or Geographic Community-- is composed of the people, the territorial space, and the set of values and norms that govern the organization and the intra and interrelationships of the constituents of the community.

With the space as the first visible and concrete manifestation of what is common residents or neighborhood, living in the same locality creates a condition where the people is bounded by common socio-economic, political, cultural and environmental forces affecting the community, though the effects of these forces could vary in scope and magnitude on the individuals and groups due to their personal and socio-economic differentiation.

Sectoral Community—constituents in this may not live in the same locality, but are affected, bonded, or determined by common interests, needs or forces.

These include both the men and women, as well as children in the following sectors: peasants, workers, urban poor, students, church people, indigenous people and other similar groupings. It also includes groups of people coming from the various sectors who bond together, temporarily or strategically for specific purposes or objectives because they see that coming and acting together would help in achieving their common purpose. Examples of these are the environmentalists, the anti-crime advocates, the anti-EVATs, and the like.

Places influences communities

MacIver and Page – locality is one of the fundamental “bases” of community

Williams (empiricists) – asks for attention to be paid to the spatial and environmental aspects of communal life

Pahl – stresses the close links between the “sociology of community and social geography”

Park (ecologist) – study of community “emphasizing the effects of the physical environment on social relationships”

Tonnies (theoretical) – claim that the metaphysical character of the clan, the tribe, the village and town community is wedded to the land in a lasting union

Herbert – “fixes” (building of historic notes, local landmarks, traditional gathering places); physical points identifiable as symbolic of a common life, past and present

Certain geographical units or areas are synonymous with “community”

Williams – pitches the concept at the level of the village

Willmott – describe (90,000 population) as the ‘biggest housing estate in the world’

Homans – place has a name, geographical boundaries, people who live within the boundaries – it is still a community

Community is a phenomenon which can be physically engineered

Pahl / Perry – architectural determinism, neighborhood unit

White – there are certain fairly well-defined units of size, population, and density within which neighborliness is easily fostered, and outside which the community tends to disintegrate

Frankenberg – agreed that a detailed description and analysis of ‘dramatic occurrences’ can reveal a great deal about communal life.

Ceremonials surrounding individual and family life crises (christenings, weddings and funerals)

Reaction to individual tragedies such as ‘whip rounds’ after fine, flood and accident

Perennial occurrences such as Christmas, Easter, bank holidays, holidays in general, elections and meetings.

Occasional celebrations such as Coronation, victory parades, etc.

may provide a more penetrating understanding of what is actually happening within the group, especially in regard to group attitudes and motives

BUT: the question raised is the extent to which these occasions accurately represent the ‘real’ sentiments of the group

Summer – ‘conventionalization’; ‘creates a set of conditions under which a thing may be tolerated which would otherwise be disapproved and tabooed

also a study of social institutions, the concepts of role, status and social class

suggesting that word ‘community’ be dropped altogether and replaced with such a phrase as ‘the local system’

focuses on the social network as the meaningful arena for social relationships

roles that individual can occupy

Stacey – social class was the key analytical tool; examination of such phenomena as the degree of inter-relation between institutions and the amount of ‘multiplex role playing’

Frankenberg – concludes the main features of rural and urban life styles in structural terms

Benson – men can only be said to experience a common life ‘to the extent that there exists among them a consensus about the rules that define the various

Tonnies (theories) – Gesellschaft (associations) excludes Gemeinschaft (community)

– elements of life in Gemeinschaft (the only real form of

life) persists within the Gesellschaft, although lingering and decaying. The essence and idea of Gemeinschaft foster a new culture amidst the decaying one.

Mann – the most important factors in the analysis of urbanism is the distinction that must be made between the overall social structure and the social structure as seen and felt by the individual

PROBLEM: - frequently community has been taken as synonymous with certain broad patterns of social relationships

Study of community – must take into account not only the usual pattern of social behavior but the attitudes of people toward the normative order as a whole

Page / MacIver – life is essentially and always communal life. Every living thing is born into community and owes its life to community.

Community is … sentiment. – term the ‘physiological configuration of

community’ – as they use it a corporate not an individualistic phenomenon – whilst distinguishing this form from its more obviously sociological expression through social activity and social structure

Simpson – without the presence of community men could not will associational relations. Community is no circumscribed sphere of social life, but rather the very life-blood of social life.

– It is complex of conditioned emotions which the individual feels towards the surrounding world and his fellows

– It is to human beings and their feelings, sentiments, reactions that all look for the fundamental roots of community

it is a psychological rather than sociological point of view

Homans – the various ‘internal states of the human being’

Merton – the concept of anomie apply equally to community – both need to be study ‘as subjectively experienced’ and as ‘objective condition of group life.’

Sense of solidarity

MacIver / Page – “we feeling” – the feeling that leads men to identify themselves with others (“we” – no distinction; “ours” – no divisions)

social unity, togetherness, social cohesion and sense of belonging

encompasses all those sentiments which draw people together (sympathy, courtesy, gratitude, trust, etc.)

Sense of significance – “role-feeling” – ‘the sense of place of station’ experienced by group members ‘so that each person feels he has a role to play, his own function to fulfill in the reciprocal exchanges of the social scene.

Klein – states that significance must stand side by side with solidarity

Homans – (sense of significance) as the norms of a group decline in the degree, so the ranking of members of the group will become less definite. As ranking become less definite, it becomes even more difficult for people to know where they stand and to attain a sense of significance.

Made up of complex of subordinate sentiments (sense of achievement; sense of fulfillment)

Sense of Security

MacIver / Page – call it ‘dependency feeling’ (the individual sense of dependence upon the community as a necessary condition of his own life [physical dependence – material needs; psychological dependence – “home” that sustain him]

A sense of security is born out of a sense of solidarity

It is how the members of the group themselves feel that is the basic concern; it is how the participants view the situation that counts

Becker – a sacred society is one that elicits from or imparts to its members, by means of association, an unwillingness and/or inability to respond to the cultural new as the new is defined by those members in terms of the society’s existing culture

Gans – if they find their community satisfying, their opinion ought to be respected. The observer always seen more than anyone else, but if he evaluates what he alone sees, he must still do so by the standards of the people whom he is observing

Pons – (‘communities of interest’) those groups which gather first and foremost because of shared beliefs, values and concerns rather than because of proximity of residence or because of established patterns of social relationship

MacIver – classification of interest: common and like communities of interest – underscore that man in modern society

finds solidarity and significance within numerous groups community is not being eclipsed but that its expression is shifting

from a local to a cosmopolitan form of activity and social relationship

by concentrating on and demonstrating the variety and diversity of interest communities to which people belong, reveals with greater force how one community can come to oppose another community and how, because the sentiments involved are so powerful and so basic, often intense conflict can occur.

Klein – the more interaction, the more positive is the sentiment towards others in the group and towards those who interact frequently in particular; interaction which is felt to be obligatory rarely strengthen a sense of belonging

Investigation of community must begin where people are

experientially and not proceed on the assumption that pattern of social activity, norms, roles and status system can reveal the full or major part of the picture.

Careful examination of how people feel about their social situation (kind of social activity or social relationships) = strong sense of community = community as an ideological tool

Strength of community can only be decided by the degree to which the group member themselves experience both a sense of solidarity and a sense of significance

ethical, philosophical and theological judgment, not sociological

COMMUNITY – a group of people who share a quality of life which reflects a commitment to common mutual concern in the context of faithful, personal, multi-faceted, relationships

Scott Peck – a group of individuals who

learned to communicate honestly with each other; relationships go deeper than their masks of composure; developed some significant commitment to “rejoice together, mourn together, delight in each other, make others condition our own.”

Luther Smith – indicator is that members feel; fellowship approximates the qualities of a caring family; Hardships and failures will be the occasion for creative solutions and increased resolved Member can have opposing reactions to the same communal

realities Decision-making may not always reflect a member’s

understanding, it must indicate that the member’s idea have been reflected

Life in community is never all good or bad – life with full range of joys and frustrations – interrelatedness cause decision to have an impact on most other realities of communal life

Community address intense feelings about the quality of life together without fragmenting their fellowship

Community is only possible when a sufficient number of members persevere through the turmoil that is part of sustaining community

Community is worth the struggle and continuing relationship is more promising than leaving

Community is the means through which their vocation fulfilled

It is a safe place – place where is no reason for fear

Henry Nouveen – place where hostility is confronted and transformed into hospitality; hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space … offer people a space where change can take place; hospitality restores community. Community is nothing, if not the creation of free friendly space

Means acceptance of people as part of a group – people are part of a group if they are remembered, acknowledged and recognized

Jean Vanier – community is all about the constant practice of unconditional acceptance; two great dangers of community are friends and enemies – will no longer be a community, a place of communion, but a collection of people more or less cut off one from another; Community is only a community when most of the members have consciously decided to break these barriers and come out of their “friendships” to reach out to their “enemies.”

Means respect for the unity and diversity of people in a

group Scott Peck – community is a constant practice of

dedicated inclusivity over against dismissive exclusivity community is, and must be, inclusive; there is an

“allness” to community; It is inclusive of the full range of human emotions; All human differences are included; Possible through commitment – the willingness to co-

exist, to commit themselves to one another

Means having a sense of responsibility for the welfare of each person in the group – the group exists as a means to the end of helping people to grow as people.

Jean Vanier – community is about constant practice of conscious responsibility for empowering people

people care and caring in a permanent way

Means every person participating in the decision of the group makes that

affects them John Cobb – community is all about the constant practice of conscientious

participation by every member of a group in the decisions that affect their lives a society should not be called a community unless is extensive participation by

its members in the decisions by which its life is governed community is a matter of the extent to which a society participates in its

governance Scott Peck – community, encouraging individuality as it does, can never be

totalitarian community, in transcending individual differences, routinely goes beyond even

democracy; decisions in genuine community are arrived at through consensus.

Means support for processes that do justice to the most disadvantaged – inside the group but also those outside the group

Amitai Etzioni – “communitarian position on social justice”

People have a moral responsibility to help themselves as best as they can;

Responsibility lies with those closest to the person, including kin, friends, neighbors and other community members (in close relations with one’s community, reciprocity is most sustainable; open-ended mutual support among neighbors; society, as a community of communities, should encourage the expectation that attending to welfare is the responsibility of the local community

Societies must help those communities whose ability to help their members is severely limited. (Charity ought to begin at home, but not end at home; social justice is an inter-community issue, not only an intra-community matter)

Traditional Community – something we have grown up with all over lives, yet never recognized it

Accidental community – something that we have grown into gradually, yet not realized it

Incidental community – may be something we have grown into dramatically and conscious of it

Intentional community – something we will only really know if we grow it ourselves. A continuing sense of community depends on developing a sense of community intentionally

growing a mutually supportive network of relationships

we need to develop the experience of being a part of a readily available, mutually supportive network of relationships

George Louell – community gives out the constant interaction of people; people build up or break down a sense of community in the places where they are

a healthy community is one which offers its members a sense of belonging and which provides incentives and opportunities for them to care for one another.

The potential is there, waiting for something to happen

make sense contacts; go visiting from house to house; meet their neighbors; called on contacts to get together to develop a community group to work on some common concerns

Various types – whole array of attempts

Temporary community – real, but occasional community; a short together of wonderful intimacy

provides the opportunity to create a micro-society in which there is equality, dignity, respect and unity of spirit within a diversity of people.

the harmony may be well short of perfect and all too temporary

unique experiences have been shared and special, lasting bonds formed between people

diverse people from disparate backgrounds with widely diverging interests … welded together in temporary community

Therapeutic Community – sharing the painful stages of growth

individual problems require individual solution, collective problems require collective solutions; a “sick society” needs therapeutic community

the seeking and finding of ourselves only comes about through a sharing with another person who is prepared to cherish us as another self.

In the group, we find our personalities constantly undergoing changes

Transitional Community – regathering the broken fragments of reality

people are given opportunity to be themselves and are able to express themselves in their own way

there are mutual respect and concerned with the well-being of one another people are given a chance to be real, to explore themselves

Testamental Community – resisting the powerful illusions of society

to serve the poor, live with the poor, try to become poor by turning backs on the seductions of materialist society and striving for a life of voluntary poverty

Live as a sharing society, holding all things in common and working cooperatively to meet basic needs

to appeal to government; to non-violently resist the structures; to do these with a spirit of prayer

Integral Community – reweaving the unraveled threads of community

see ourselves as part of the locality and as a network of residents working toward community

we are inclusive – invite everyone who relate to us, to join us to whatever degree they want

False Community – people are happy to reach out to one another as long as they help one another at arm’s length

lasts as long as people in the group can prevent conflicts from erupting – conflict erupt move to 2nd phase

Chaos – when people are no longer polite; when people no longer pretend

once a group decides it can’t cope with the conflict any longer

if try to deal conflict through institutional measure (regulations) – move back to 1st phase

if try to deal conflict by communal means (reconciliation) – move to 3rd phase

dream of community becomes a nightmare

Compassion – people live side by side, sharing the limitations and the contradictions of their lives

share the disappointment and despair of not being able to make dreams of community come true

cope with the discomfort associated with unresolved conflict – can’t cope, resume conflict – coping – move to 4th phase

True Community – people relate to one as they would like others to relate to them

we need one another and need to continually resolve their conflicts to meet one another’s needs – to make their dreams of community come true

we must be willing to endure the chaos and embrace the compassion which produces real community

we need to make sure that when things get tough, try to hang in there while we work our way through it together