What Is a Community?
Commentary
I was given cause recently to reflect on the meaning of “community.” What is community? Most people would reflexively answer that it is where you live, your locality, and that would not be entirely incorrect. But, what is a community really? Must you have a home in your community? Can you be in more than one community at once? Is it possible for some communities to be warm and supportive, while other communities remain cold and unforgiving?
Community
Merriam-Webster defines community as “a unified body of individuals.” But that is just the start, because it adds “Such as:” followed by a plethora of possibilities for the meaning of community. A community could be “the people with common interests living in a particular area broadly,” or it could be “a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society. Another possibility is “a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society.” Still more possibilities are “a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests,” or “a group linked by a common policy.” A community could be “an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (such as species) in a common location.”…