5309: Chapter 13 - Communities

Ferdinand Tonnies' (1887/1963) Concept of Community:

Gemeinschaft (community)

• Strong identification with community
• Authority based on tradition
• Relationships based on emotionalism
• Others seen as whole persons.

Gesellschaft (society)

• Little identification with community
• Authority based on laws and rationality
• Relationships based on goal attainment and emotional neutrality
• Others seen as role enactors

Wellman (1999): Communities are not lost, but transformed, and new forms of community develop. 

Four Elements of Community:

1. Contact: Level of interaction
2. Range: Size and heterogeneity
3. Intimacy: Sense of relationships as special: desire for companionship: interest in being together in multiple social contexts over time; sense of mutuality in relationships; needs supported
4. Kinship/Friendship: Proportion of community membership composed of immediate kin

Spatial Arrangements Approach on Communities:

• On research team studied that spatial arrangements in suburban region found that people who had a sense of adequate privacy from neighbor's houses also reported greater sense of community (Wilson & Baldasssare, 1996)

Social Systems Approach:

• Focuses on social interaction rather than on the physical, spatial aspects of community. 

Ethnography: is particularly useful for studying community culture. 

Community in terms of structure:

Horizontal Linkage: interactions with other members of the community. 

Vertical Linkage: interactions with individuals and systems outside the community. 

Communities with strong horizontal linkage provide sense of identity for community members; without good vertical linkage cannot provide necessary resources for well-being of community members.