Ms.

LEA RAMONIDA
Teacher
The word The prefix "com" signifies Latin communitas (meaning the
community is "with, together, in same), which is in turn derived
derived from the conjunction, joint". from communis, which means
Latin communitas, Removing the "com" from "common, public, shared by all
or many."Communis comes
fellowship, which, in the latin, leaves you
from a combination of the Latin
turn, is derived with munis, which derives
prefix com- (which means
from communis, or from munire, meaning "to "together") and the
"common". fortify, strengthen, or word munis (which has to do
defend". with performing services).

Conception of Community from the

Past to Present:
Etymology
• Originated by Ferdinand There are different types of • In sociological context, community
F. Tonnies with this relationship in this world as we has been contrasted with society
theory of Gemeinschaft know of. The Confucianism holds • In contrast, community is tradition;
and Gesselschaft the five key relationships. They society is change
(Community and Society) are: • Community is warm, wet, and
in 1887 1. Ruler and Subject intimate, society is cold, dry, and
• Confucius theory,  with 2. Father and Son formal
the principles of good 3. Elder Brother and Younger • Community is love, society is
conduct, practical Brother business
wisdom, and proper 4. Husband and Wife • Thus, meaning of community has
social relationships 5. Friend and Friend an emotional attachment to place
and it offers ideal guidelines for
human relationships

Conception of Community from the

Past to Present:
Sociological Context
Conception of Community from the Past to Present:
European Conceptions
Conception of Community from the Past to Present:
American Conceptions – Human Ecology
Conception of Community from the Past to Present:
American Conceptions – Human Ecology
Conception of Community from the Past to Present:
American Conceptions – Community Power
Conception of Community from the Past to Present:
American Conceptions – Community Power
Lifestyle
• from Latin expression modus
vivendi means manner/way
of living but should be
understood in terms of values
and attitudes
• it is the interests, opinions,
behaviors, and behavioral
orientations of an individual,
group, or culture and
introduced by Austrian
psychologist Alfred Adler in
1929
Herbert Gans divided the population
of American city into five different
groups, according to their distinctive
lifestyle.
(1) Cosmopolite – professionals and
white collar workers with broad
range of interests. They valued the
city’s culture more than the social
life of their own neighborhood.
(2) Footloose – these are the
unmarried, and the married and
childless. They sought
companionship outside of their
neighborhood.
(3) Ethnic Villagers – immigrants to
the US. They followed a way of life
they knew previously.
(4) Deprived – these are handicapped
by poverty, emotional and racial
problems .
(5) Trapped and Downwardly Mobile
– lived in slum and unable to leave,
but they had the strongest bonds of
community because their
interdependence was based on family
ties, kinship, and shared culture.

Sociologists from Cornell University found out that the simplicity of small town life was enormously composite and
influenced greatly by forces outside of the community, in contrast to the towns’ people self-image of being “just plain
folks”.

Conception of Community from the Past to Present:

American Conceptions – Urban Lifestyle
Network
• also called as community
liberated
• it is a specific set of linkages
among a set of persons or
larger social units such as
families, organizations, or
corporations
• these linkages used to
interpret the social behavior
of the people involved in
them
• Barry Wellman found that
urbanites are members of many
networks, some of which are
tightly knit and others loosely knit
• Networks characterized by a high
density of ties which are directly
tied to other communities
• Communities, therefore, are kinds
and qualities of interpersonal ties
between people
• Some ties are unique and personal
such as neighborhood, but
majority of ties are diverse and can
be far reaching
• Wellman pointed out that intimacy
is not a unidimensional construct
• when intimates are lost from a
network they can be replaced by
friends and co-workers
• Wellman emphasized that intimate
networks are only one kind of
personal network, where each
person is a member of networks
of all of the people with whom one
is linked
• Network clusters provide persons
with more resources than only one
network limited to a specific locale

According to Granovetter (1973), studying how people connect and use their strong and weak ties provides the
opportunity to understand how micro and macro community levels are linked.

Conception of Community from the Past to Present:

American Conceptions – Networks as Communities
Early and Mid 20th Century • New urban sociologists saw urban • racism, gender, and space in the
• Urban ecologists saw changes organization and behavior as analysis of metropolitan
in the city as emerging from caused by the actions of powerful development
the interaction of many local interests which often had their • it involves change in the way
interests in a shared and home bases in places removed human environment are analyzed
common space. from local areas • Believed that societies were
• Urban ecologists believed that • They saw urban organization and organized around integrated
city life should be understood development as a function of push systems of economics, politics, and
as a process of adaptation to (demand-side) and pull (supply- culture.
the environment side) forces operating regionally • Two perspective emerged in the
• Urban sociology is the way • Gottdiener and Hutchinson studies new urban sociology: (1) the
worked of Max Weber, Karl that in urban sociology it includes growth machine, and (2) the socio-
Marx, and Friedrich Engels capitalism and the metropolis, the spatial approach
inclusion of factors such as social
class exploitation, …
• The Growth machine theory believed that urban change involves the activities of a group or real state developers who represent
a separate class (rentiers). This class prepares land for new development and pushes the public agenda to pursue growth.
• The Sociospatial perspective considers government intervention and the interests of politicians as a principal factor in
metropolitan change. It utilizes a number of different factors that account for urban development and change and seeks to
provide a balance view of both push and pull factors in urban and regional growth.

Conception of Community from the Past to Present:

Contemporary Urban Sociology
Communitarianism
• a philosophy that emphasizes
the connection between the
individual and the
community.
• a social philosophy that
emphasizes the importance of
society in articulating the
good.
• contrasted with liberalism
• a theory which holds that
each individual should
formulate the good on his or
her own.
• Communitarians examine the ways
• Communitarian thinking involves a
shared conceptions of the good are
formed, transmitted, justified, and return to “we-ness” in society,
enforced. social institutions, and social
• Among early sociologists whose work is relationship.
strongly communitarian, although this • The communitarian movement is
fact is as a rule overlooked by social not only an attempt to revive the
philosophers, are Ferdinand Tönnies, spirit of community, but it is also a
especially his comparison of civic, and democratic movement as
the Gemeinschaft and Gessellschaft, (or
well; in a sense it is a call for a
community and society); Emile
Durkheim, especially his concerns national community.
about the integrating role of social
values and the relations between the
individual and society; and George
Herbert Mead. 

• Communitarians are also concerned with the relationship between the self and the community.
• Political theorists depict the self as "embedded," implying that the self is constrained by the community. Responsive
communitarians stress that individuals who are well integrated into communities are better able to reason and act in responsible
ways than are isolated individuals, but if social pressure to conform rises to high levels, it will undermine the individual self and
therefore disrupt the balance.

Social Movements and Conceptions of Community:

Communitarianism
• Across US there are a number
of community-based
movements and local groups
that share contemporary
visions and approaches to
community transformation.
This movements include:
• Healthy Communities
• Sustainable Communities
• Community Building
• Civic Democracy
• Livable Communities
• Safe Communities
• Smart Growth Communities
• This Communities Movement
Project carried out dialogues in
several locations in the US,
convened an advisory council,
• and conducted a survey to frame
common themes such as the
following:
• Sense of Community
• Social Justice
• Process as Substance
• Sense of Community – is
a feeling that members have of
belonging, a feeling that members
matter to one another and to the
group, and a shared faith that
members' needs will be met
through commitment to be
together
• Social Justice - a concept of fair
and just relations between the
individual and society, as measured
by the distribution of wealth,
opportunities for personal activity,
and social privileges.

• Process of Substance – the support of dialogue, feedback, and collaboration.

SUMMARY:
The concept of community as a group of natural, changing, mobile networks that meet a variety of changing
needs makes community personally meaningful in a society in which “place” is less permanent and meaningful.

Social Movements and Conceptions of Community:

The Communities Movement