Monday, 20 July 2015

What is Community?



Definitions of Community

  • A community is a group of people who have something in common. (Living as a Community, n.d.)

  • Community refers to both the development of a social grouping and also the nature of the relationship among the members. (Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition, n.d.).

  • A community is an organic, natural set of relationships, a group in which membership is valued as an end in itself; which concerns itself with many significant aspects of the lives of members; which allows competing factions; whose members share commitment to a common purpose and to procedures for handling conflict in the group; whose members have responsibility for actions of the group; and whose members have an enduring and extensive personal contact with each other.” (Roberts, 1979).

  • A group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social ties, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action in geographical locations. (MacQueen et al., 2001: 1929).


  • A group of people who share common culture, values, and/or interests, based on social identity and/or territory, and who have some means of recognising and (inter)acting upon these commonalities. (Gregory (2009: 103)



References

Gregory, D. (2009). ‘Community’ in Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G.,Watts, R.J., & Whatmore, S. (eds.) Dictionary of Human Geography, Malden, MA & Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 103-4

Living as a Community (n.d.). "The Origins of Community." Retrieved from http://www.legana.org/studies/community/001origins.htm 

MacQueen, K.M., McLellan, E., Metzger, D.S. & Kegeles, S. (2001). ‘What is Community? An Evidence-Based Definition for Participatory Public Health’ American Journal of Public Health, 91 (12), pp. 1929-1938

Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition (n.d.). "Definition and Characteristics of Communities." Retrieved from http://www.ohcc-ccso.ca/en/courses/community-development-for-health-promoters/module-one-concepts-values-and-principles/definit

Roberts, H. (1979). Community Development: Learning and Action, University of Toronto Press,(ISBN: 0-8020-6351-9 PBK)

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