COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY

Wherever the members of any group, small

or large, live together in such a way that they
share, not this or that particular interests, but
the basic conditions of a common life, we call
that group a community.
A community is an area of social living
marked by some degree of social coherence.

The Bases of Community

The bases of community are locality and

community sentiment.
Locality: A community always occupies a
territorial area. Even a nomad community, a
band of gypsies, for example, has a local,
though changing habitation.
Most communities are settled and derive
from the conditions of their locality a strong
bond of solidarity.

To some extent this local bond has been

weakened in the modern world by the
extending facilities of communication; this is
especially apparent in the penetration into
rural areas of dominant urban patterns.

Community Sentiment

We feelings among the group members.

The great and small communities.
Greater Communities: Nation
Smaller Communities: Tribal settlements,
Villages

Ferdinand Tonnies Sociological

Conception of Social Relations

Gemeinschaft (Community)
Gesellschaft (Society)

GEMEINSCHAFT
(COMMUNITY)

The social relations that are rooted in

emotions, attachments, and mental
inclinations, and preserved their own selfidentification both consciously, by virtue of
tradition, and unconsciously because of
emotional ties and through the unifying
influence of a common language.

Three Types of Community

Relations

1. those of descent ( which are primarily

taken as natural or blood-relations). e.g.
kinship groups, Clans (Kula or Gothras).
2. Neighborhood relations which are
characterized by living together.
3. Friendship or brotherhood relations defined
by spiritual nearness

GESELLSCHAFT (Society or
Association)

The social relations that are based on rational

exchange, a change in the ownership of things,
so that they have a material nature and are
characterized, by virtue of the very nature of
exchange, by the parties oppositely directed
aspirations and strivings.
These relations could also exist between
individuals who are separate and unknown to one
another, even between enemies, because of the
conscious decision of the parties involved in them

Gesellschaft is most typically approximated in

modern society, particularly as it exists in
large metropolitan areas, where we see weak
family organization, its emphasis on utilitarian
goals, and the impersonal and competitive
nature of its social relationships.

Community and Society

These two types of relations and connections not

only characterized peoples relations with one
another but also described a persons relation to
society.
Community: the social whole logically preceded
the parts.
Society: the social whole was formed of an
aggregate of parts
The difference between community and society
(association) is the difference between the
organic and mechanical ties of the parts that
constituted the social whole.