Dictionnaire de la Science Politique

Authors: Hermet, Badie, Birnbaum & Braud
Summary: In an entry of about 250 words, the most important meanings of the term community are recalled.
The sociological concept of community (Gemeinschaft) is to be attributed to Toennies, who distinguished it from society (Gesellschaft). The former relates to a form of social organization, where individuals are bound together by spontaneous solidarity and the sharing of common goals. Whereas society is linked to the idea of utility and rationality, community is sustained by affection, sense of belonging and internalization of common values.
Another use of the same concept is proposed by theorists of social mobilization, according to whom community represents all the people that share the same system of communication, whereas, according to system theorists, community relates to the group of people who takes part into the functioning of a given system.
In a more general sense, the concept of community could be applied to any social grouping no matter its degree of integration, whereas in the institutional language it is referred to interstate institutionalized communities (e.g. the European Community).