What is a community? Community is a common concept, a word with multiple meanings. As long ago as 1955 George Hillery listed some 94 definitions of community he had found in the social science literature, and concluded that the only thing they all held in common was a reference to people (Smith 1996). Out of all definitions of a community, I believe this is the true definition of a community by Al Condeluci. Condeluci’s definition of community is that of networks of different people who regularly come together for a common cause or celebration (Condeluci 2002). Al Condeluci’s belief that when people form meaningful, reciprocal relationships these formal roles will follow naturally. Both are required for people to make attitudinal change towards people who are seen as “different” within any community. “You must be in community before you can be of community (Condeluci 2002).” People must be physically or virtually present in community in a variety of environments or cultures before they truly become a part of community.
When a group of people come and live together, share common goals and carry out certain responsibilities towards each other, they form a community. Community suggests a general sense of humanity, reciprocity, and beneficence that comes from working together. Communities help generate a shared language, rituals and customers, and collective memory of those that join the group. This basic approach to community and culture blend three key features. The three key features are:
• Diversity of membership
• Commonality of celebration
• Regularity of gathering
One is the fact that community is a network of people. Often these people may have great differences or even distances between them. They can be different in age, background, ethnicity, religion or many other ways, but in spite of their differences, their commonality or common cause pulls them together. The similarity of the common cause or celebration is the second key feature of community and the glue that creates the network. Regardless of whom the members of the network are as people, their common cause overrides whatever differences they may have and creates a powerful connection. Finally, as the collection of people continues to meet and celebrate on a regular basis, they begin to frame behaviors and patterns and become a culture, the third key ingredient. These regular meetings bond the community members as they discover other ways that they are similar (Condeluci 2002).
The term “culture” is analogous to community, but culture relates more to the behaviors manifested by the community. People bound together around a common cause create a community, but the minute they begin to establish behaviors around their common cause, they develop a culture. In this way, culture is the learned and shared way that communities do particular things.
Communities of all types have been around since the beginning of mankind; and will continue to be around indefinitely. Communities in society have always been supported by whatever tools are available to their members at the time.
Before writing, communities were very small because the enabling communication vehicle was the member's voice. Members shared their issues and concerns, triumphs and stories in person because that’s all they had. Once writing was developed monks and scholars continued to meet in person, but were able to extend their communities by writing down their stories and sharing them with people beyond the sound of their voice. Socrates supposedly said that writing would lead to the end of civilization because people didn't have to be amongst one another anymore. With Guitenburg's printing press, more people were able to contribute to the community and share their messages. Paul Revere's postal service became another tool, extending some communities wider... and then there was the telephone, the car, the airplane, and the Internet. None of these tools has replaced the community. (Connor 2000)
They have simply extended community’s reach, its depth, and its potential impact.
So think of the many “communities” there are both in physical and virtual world. In the physical world, communities are typically groups of people (a town, for instance) held together by some common identity or interest. The same holds true for virtual or online communities in that they, too, are comprised of people with shared identity or interests coming together for a shared purpose. This shared interest or intent offers a strong forum for members of the community to build relationships and affiliations out of which they can learn from one another and make an impact on the society or culture around them (Connor 2000).
Communities of all types have been around since the beginning of mankind; and will continue to be around indefinitely. Despite that, the idea of any community is constantly evolving to keep the community alive and to prevent it from being obsolete. Without allowing communities to grow and change for the better, a community may not survive in the long run. The survival of a community all depends on the liberalism mind of members of communities.
Works Cited:
Condeluci, Al. Cultural Shifting. St Augustine, FL: Training Resource Network, 2002.
Connor, Marcia. "Community." 2000. www.learnactivity.com. 1 June 2008
http://www.learnativity.com/speaking/communityhandout-mconner0600.pdf.
Smith, Greg. "Community - arianism." 18 September 1996. http://homepages.uel.ac.uk. 1 June 2008
http://homepages.uel.ac.uk/G.Smith/community-arainism/gsum.html.
