Conceptualizing Community

 

Academic discussions of community commonly draw upon a primordial image of intimate social relationships, as contrasted with a more dissociative, contemporary way of life. Tönnies’ (1887/1957) quintessential view of Gemeinschaft is often cited when authors harken back to a primordial, socially embedded mode of existence that many deem to be fundamentally lost. Delanty (2003) indicates that, from ancient Greek times to the Enlightenment, the idea of community conveyed a “lifeworld” of direct social relationships, commonality, sociality, and belonging, as distinct from the rather stark and distant state. According to Tyler (2006), one of the earliest understandings of community was that of “an organised body of people,” which shifted, in the Renaissance, to matters of relationship, shared identity, and common good (pp.  21–22). He remarks that the notion of community did not signify the members of a particular locale until the modern era. And, so, some of the complexity of the community concept stems from the accumulation of its diverse uses, as well as ongoing efforts to reframe its meaning (Tyler, 2006). 

Subtopics covered are as under:

1- Types of Community

 

Readings

Bessant, K. C. (2018). The Relational Fabric of Community. Palgrave Macmillan.

Chaskin, R. J. (2013). Theories of Community. In M. Weil, M. Reisch, & M. L. Ohmer (Eds.), The handbook of community practice (2nd ed., pp. 105–122). SAGE Publications, Inc.

Netting, F. E., Kettner, P. M., McMurtry, S. L., & Thomas, M. L. (2017). Social Work Macro Practice (6th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc.

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