Connotation Of Community Essay

Theorization of Community

If you were to look up the definition of community in the Merriam-Webster dictionary you would find a variety of answers, most of them with the same basic characteristics. A community is a group a people with common interests living in a particular area. The general definition is used so often to describe even the most loosely related groups of people in similar areas, that is has lost its true meaning. The basic connotation of the term is now vague and worn out. A community refers to the things people have in common that bind them together by a sense of belonging with one another (Day, 2006, p. 1). Sometimes related to a specific location, but not always. In the traditional concept of community, it is based on family

In some instances it is a place, or setting, displaying certain social characteristics, that can be identified and described. Community is also something that is felt and has an emotional or affective impact (Day, 2006, p. 31). It is a set of interactions and human behaviors that have meaning and expectations between its members. The members of a community base their actions on shared beliefs, meanings, expectations and values (Bartle, 2007).
The concept of community has changed over time in order to meet the needed expectations of the individuals belonging in the community. Community was once based on political ties and was a contractual relationship between individuals (Delaney, 2010, p.1). During the Enlightenment, the idea of community referred to the immediate world of meaning, belonging, and everyday life (Delaney, 2010, p.2). Due to the rationalization of society, it can be argued that the idea of community is dying out and that at some point in the future communities will no longer be able to exist. Whether this is due to a physical change of the person, such as where one works or lives, or due to a change is social patterns where individuals no longer feel the need to belong to a community is up for