• At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

Define the various concepts of community.

Identify the elements and typologies of
communities.
.
Compare the different perspectives of
community
WHAT IS A COMMUNITY
 The first definition of ‘community’ as we know it today emerged
in 1887, when German sociologies Ferdinand Tönnies proposed
the GEMEINSCHAFT (translated to “community”) and
GESELLSCHAFT (translated to “society”)dischotomy as a way to
view social ties.

COMMUNITY DIFINED
Gemeinschaft:
 Personal social interactions, and the values or beliefs based on
such interactions.
 Social relations between individuals, based on close personal
and family ties
Gesellschaft:
 Indirect interaction, impersonal roles traditional values, and
beliefs based on such interactions.
 Social relations based on impersonal ties, as duty to a society or
organization.

DICHOTOMY PROPOSES THAT SOCIAL

TIES CAN BE CLASSIFIED INTO:
 MEMEBERSHIP – Feeling of belonging or sharing of a sense of
personal relatedness.
 INFLUENCE – mattering, making an difference to a group and a
group mattering to its member.
 REINFORCEMENT – integration and fulfillment of needs.
 SHARED EMOTIONAL CONNECTION.

4 ELEMENTS OF “SENSE OF COMMUNITY”

ACCORDING TO MCMILLAN AND CHAVIS
(1986)
 PEOPLE – basic unit of social structure.
 DIFFERENT ROLE – dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual
orientation, values, age, physical abilities etc.
 MACRO-LEVEL FACTORS – (socio-political, cultural, and
economic).

BASIC ELEMENTS OF A COMMUNITY

A. Sociological Perspective – refer to a range of social phenomena.
2 Dimension of Community According to Joseph Gusfield (1978).
 Relational – Relates to the nature and quality of relationship in
that community.
 Territorial – People live near one another and may often see
each other on diffirent occasions.

DIFFERENTS PERSPECTIVES ON
COMMUNITY
B. Institutional Perspective – individual connect to each other in
society through a network of values and institution.

C. Civil Society Perspective – is often though of as a “mediator

between the individual and the state.

D. Local and Grass Root – derive their power from the people.

DIFFERENTS PERSPECTIVES ON
COMMUNITY
 Worsley (1987) proposed 3 typology types:
 Locality – Communities which share a common place or locality.
 Collective identity – Communities based on a shared identifiable
characteristic such as ethnicity, or a common experience of dis
advantage, or to those who belong to a particular profession.
 Community Spirit – Member such as community have a sense of
connection based on a network of relationship and interactions
which may or may not be through physical interactions.

TYPES OF COMMUNITIES
 Typology is one of the few available to classify distinctly different
types of contemporary communities, grouped according to the
following variables:
1. Basis of relationship, whether geographic or by choice;
2. Reason for interaction, wether through activity or belief.
3. Location of other members, whether concentrated or
dispersed.
4. Amount of interaction, wether frequent or infrequent.

BRINT (2001)