Page 11 - LCL Handbook EN

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1.1 Community and leadership local-community-leaders.eu/

Community is a fundamental building part of society. Communities are realised
through dynamic, diverse and interdependent interactions between and inside of
groups, organizations and institutions and individuals, both internal and external to
the community.

A community is a small or large social unit that has in common norms, religion, values
or identity. Communities often share a certain way of thinking and judging, specific to
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dimensions: membership, influence, reinforcement and shared local-community-leaders.eu/
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a certain area (for example, a country, village, town or neighborhood). Another meaning
of "community" is that of affiliations of large groups represented by national,
international communities and virtual communities. The term "community" comes from
the Latin "communitas" meaning community, "public spirit" (Latin-communis-shared).
Communities can share intention, faith, resources, preferences, needs and risks, all of
which influence the identity of members and their degree of cohesion.
Creating communities as places where people want to work and live has been a
challenge for society as a whole, taking a step beyond their traditional role of providing
services and ensuring the necessities of daily life. Communities can be seen as complex
systems which are not only defined by boundaries such as geographical location, but are
open to different participants despite their location.

A definition of community was made by McMillan and Chavis (1986) through four
emotional
connection dimensions: membership, influence, reinforcement and shared emotional
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connection. Communities operate in an interaction process in which actions are
coordinated at the local level and there must be social interaction. Wilkinson (1991)
describes a local community as a territory of social interaction that offers specific
associations that encompass local society that gives structure and direction to
community action processes. Wilkinson's theory (1991) shows that community
development is a process in which local actors deliberately try to create or strengthen
social networks to work together to solve community problems and express their
common interest in the locality. In other words, community is defined by social
interaction. In the same time, people can be parts of many communities and in this
position they are able to “transfer, translate, and transform experiences from one
community to another” (Dahlander and Frederiksen, 2012, p.990).

Community membership is based on five attributes: boundaries, emotional security,
group membership and group identification, and a common system of symbols. These
attributes work together to show who is part of the community and who is not. At the
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This project has been funded with the support from the European Union. This
publication reflects the views only of the author, and the European Commission or Fundacja Rozwoju Systemu Edukacji
– National Agency of Erasmus+ in Poland cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information
contained herein.
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