The Community Portal

Welcome to the Community Portal.

A Community is a tight formation of members that share common ground in a variety of real or abstract areas. Most sociologists agree that a society, while much larger in size, lacks the cohesion provided by the sense of community exhibited in a community. From a psychological perspective, an individual's success and happiness can be effected by their social interaction with others.

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Sense of community (or psychological sense of community) is a concept in social psychology (or more narrowly, in community psychology), which focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation, setting, or other features. Sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, and others have theorized about and carried out empirical research on community, but the psychological approach asks questions about the individual's perception, understanding, attitudes, feelings, etc. about community and his or her relationship to it and to others' participation - indeed to the complete, multifaceted community experience. Read more...

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Did you know...

• ...that according to the McMillan & Chavis theory, there are four basic elements to the sense of community: membership, influence, fulfillment of needs and a shared emotional connection? Read more...
• ...that in the 1970s and 1980s, community development became a part of "Integrated Rural Development", a strategy promoted by United Nations Agencies and the World Bank? Read more...
• ...that Pierre Bourdieu in his book The Forms of Capital (1986) defines social capital as "the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition"? Read more...

Community topics

The List of community topics contains a broad listing of Wikipedia articles about community. Here are some highlights:

Community kinds

Community, the human community:

• World Community, the global aspects of community from the perspective of governance and the humanities
• Global village, the global aspects of community from the perspective of telecommunications

Academic topics

Academic articles:Organizational learning | Computational sociology | Organizational Development | Collectivist and Individualist cultures | Community development | Community psychology | Sense of community

Community principles: Meritocracy | Communitarianism | Collectivism | Affinity

Web resources

• The Citizen's Handbook
• Community Development Journal (Oxford)
• Community Economic Development Institute (Cape Breton University)
• Smart Communities Blog
• Fellowship for Intentional Community
• Social Capital in Tampa Bay (University of South Florida)
• Ray Oldenburg's Project for Public Spaces (PPS)
• Community - a review of the theory (Infed.org)
• BetterTogether.org an initiative of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America at Harvard University
• Subdivided a film featuring community building efforts in the suburbs
• CommunityGuy.com - an exploration of how to put community thinking to work in business

Types of communities

Intentional communities | Communities of practice | Virtual Communities | Community of interest

Online community

Articles:

• Community informatics
• Virtual community

Categories:

• Virtual communities
• Community websites

Related portals

Personal life | Society | Culture | Psychology

Community news

Wikimedia launches new "incubator".

Selected biography

Ferdinand Tönnies (1855 - 1936), was a German sociologist best known for describing two distinguishable types of social groups — Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Gemeinschaft — often translated as community — refers to groupings based on a feeling of togetherness. Gesellschaft — often translated as society — on the other hand, refers to groups that are sustained by an instrumental goal. Gemeinschaft may by exemplified by a family or a neighbourhood; Gesellschaft by a joint-stock company or a state.

Quotes

"...Only the purpose of a coherent community, fully alive both in the world and in the minds of its members, can carry us beyond fragmentation, contradiction, and negativity, teaching us to preserve, not in opposition but in affirmation and affection, all things needful to make us glad to live." Wendell Berry - from a speech titled The Purpose of a Coherent Community delivered on September 29, 2004 to the National Preservation Conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation at Louisville, Kentucky - USA

Community lists

• List of intentional communities
• List of ecovillages
• ...

See the Virtual community article for:

• Benchmark virtual communities
• Additional virtual community listings

Categories

Community • Top-level Category

• Category:Communities • actual communities of many types
  • Category:Types of communities • about those types
    • Category:Intentional communities • examples of type
    • Category:Virtual communities • examples of type
• Category:Community development • formal, institutional and other ways to improve communities
  • Category:Community-building organizations • some of these are activist - some not
  • Category:Community building • less formal and less activist-oriented
  • Category:Community organizing • less formal and more activist-oriented
    • Category:Community organizers • notable community organizers
    • Category:Community and social services occupations • includes social work

WikiProjects

Some related WikiProjects:

• WikiProject Sociology
• WikiProject Community
• WikiProject Family and relationships

Things you can do

Community has been nominated as a "Good article"

Portal queue and archive

Community development

Community development is the study and practice of building and understanding how communities work (or fail to work). From neighborhoods to ecovillages, the idea of community is an important aspect of society in every part of the Global village and within the World Community.

Take a look at Community development section of the main Community article and at the main article, Community development to learn more.

Some other articles: Saguaro Seminar, Bowling Alone, General Social Survey, Grassroots movement

Subportals

Portal:Community/Subportals

Associated Wikimedia