community

Society

2022

We explain what a community is and what its characteristics are. Also, the types of communities and Max Weber's approach.

Communities exist both among human beings and among other living things.

What is a community?

A community is a set of individuals who have various elements in common, such as the territory that inhabit, the tasks, thevalues, the roles, the language or thereligion. It is also often the case that persons are grouped together voluntarily or spontaneously because they have a objective in common.

On the other hand, the term community, inecology, refers to the set ofliving beings that inhabit a certainhabitat. For example, the community of aplateau is composed of all mushrooms, plants, animals Ybacteria that are developed there.

Communities can be formed around different elements that individuals have in common. These elements are what make up theidentity of each community and that is why it is possible to speak of various types of communities.

Some sciences that use this term are the sociology, political science, epistemology, the anthropology, the linguistics.

See also:Virtual communities

Characteristics of a community

Communities are characterized by gathering a series of characteristics that identify them:

  • Identity. Members of a community share common interests, tastes, or goals. This gives the community a series of distinctive traits and characteristics that build its identity.
  • Target in common. The members of a community have goals and goals to meet, and all work towards the fulfillment of the proposed objectives.
  • Commitment. Commitment is one of the key values ​​within a community. Ties are created between its members that allow harmony and the pursuit of a joint goal.
  • Culture. Members share communal values ​​(which determine what is allowed and what is not allowed within the community), traditions, the same vision of the world and aeducation that transmits from generation to generation the characteristics of the community.
  • Interaction. The members of a community interact with each other. In turn, they are part of a society larger that contains them and therefore they also interact with other social groups.
  • Dynamic. Communities are dynamic and constantly changing structures.

Types of communities

A religious community professes the same religion.

  • Scientific community. It is the body of scientists in its entirety, taking into account the links and interactions that exist between its members. The ties between the scientific community do not depend on working together or not, but on the links that are established from exchanges of ideas,research, hypothesis, congresses or specialized magazines.
  • Religious community. It is every group of people professing a certain religion.
  • Educative community. It is made up of those people who are part of theenvironment educational, be it that of a university, college or kindergarten. Within the educational community can include the authorities of theinstitution, to theteachers, students, alumni, neighbors, cleaning staff.
  • Rural community. It is made up of those individuals who live and carry out their activities in the field. Its main activities arefarming and thecattle raising.
  • Virtual community. It is the virtual space in which a group of people gathers around a interest in common. This concept emerged in recent times with the development of the web and the social networks.
  • Biological community. Is composed of plants, mushrooms and animals and humans that coexist in the sameecosystem.

"Community" according to Max Weber

The classic concept of what a “community” is was developed by the sociologist and historian Max Weber, who defines it as: “(…) a social relationship when and insofar as it is inspired by subjective feeling (affective or traditional) of the participants to constitute a whole ”. The Methodology ofsocial Sciences (The Free Press, N. York, 1949. p. 40).

This point of view maintains that the ties of the community are fundamentally based on the rationality that each of its participants has and exercises for themselves, and on which they collaborate to unify and act in an associated way to achieve a common goal.

The impulses that motivate people are bonds of positive affective feelings and ofI respect by the established traditions of the community to which they belong.

On the other hand, this definition is in total opposition to the concept of “struggle”. Max Weber considers that in a community collaboration prevails over struggle, particular interests andcompetence.

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