Community

Over time, in social and political sciences, the term “community” has taken on different meanings, but it is possible to trace its basic elements giving a minimal definition. Community is a way of being, typical of social relationships: there is a community when the social interactions between its members can be described as predominantly or as more frequently characterized by solidarity, trust, altruism, collaboration, reciprocity, gift, civic sense, and simplicity. The presence of community social relations allows us to use even the term “social bond” instead of “social relationship.” A community is different from a group or a society because it can be defined as a temporary, non-structural emerging phase that both societies and groups can experience when the actors who constitute them relate in a cooperative, warm way, aimed at mutual recognition and understanding, equality, love, responsibility, respect, protection of the weakest, reduction of hierarchies, and even including the acceptation of cultural differences and the defense of human dignity. A community can emerge in specific moments such as the birth and the formation of a collectivity, in a moment of collective effervescence, ritual cohesion, or in a revolutionary or intense social change stage.