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A community is a group of people who socialize in a location. This concept is often expanded to describe informal social groups that enjoy a shared sense of belonging and comradely independently of location. The following is a complete overview of community including definitions, examples and comparisons.
Definition (precise) | A group of people who socialize in a location. | Definition (expanded) | Informal social groups that enjoy a shared sense of belonging and comradely independently of location. | Type | Social Group | Examples | NeighborhoodsSmall TownsCitiesEthnic Groups ReligionsInterests (e.g. sailing community)Lifestyle (e.g. simple living community)Professions (e.g. scientific community)Situation (e.g. expat community)Culture (e.g. the art world) | Components | Social InteractionSense of BelongingSense of Shared IdentityCivilityNorms & CultureMutual Support | Community vs Culture | Community refers to people. Culture refers to shared meaning and norms that emerge in groups that spend time together. Culture and community often overlap. A community can include many cultures. A culture can span many communities. For example, a neighborhood may have many ethnicities that each have an ethnic culture. In this context, a neighborhood culture and neighborhood community may also exist. | Community vs Society | A society is a comprehensive system for organizing life in a place. This usually occurs at the level of nations. A society is far larger than a community and isn't informal. For example, a society includes things like laws that are formally defined. A society typically includes many communities. A community can span multiple societies. | Counterexamples | Communities are informally defined such that a person may feel like part of the community if they participate in it in some way. Any social group with formal membership is not a community. The following are counterexamples, meaning that these things are specifically not communities in themselves.SocietiesNationsOrganizationsInstitutions | Applicable Domains | SociologyBiology |
NotesCommunity originally refers to the social unit that develops when people live together in a place such as a neighborhood or small town. The expanded definition is essentially an analogy whereby people who have some common interest or culture resemble neighbors.In many cases there is a community associated with an city, organization or institution. For example, the community associated with a school might include people like parents, former students and former teachers who have some connection to the school but aren't current members of it.
Community
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