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Community Defined
DEFINITION
Community is a word always used in two different contexts. First, it
is the name of a particular kind of local population group. Our
description of that local group is “ ‘a few hundred or a few
thousand’ people living within an area of ‘a few square miles’ ”. The
second, and more important context, defines the “qualities” of society. These
qualities
include social traits such as mutual trust, mutual confidence and
mutual obligation along with
loyalty to general principles. It is the “qualities” of people
raised in the tradition of the small local community that is the
important factor in the definition.
HOW MANY ARE
THERE - AND WHERE ARE THEY?
A century ago almost every community in America was a small local community.
Today approximately 80% of the population lives in urban areas. About
20% (approximately 55 million people) live in small towns or
communities. 2,000 counties in the country have been identified as
“rural, ” which is one way to describe small
local communities. There are between 10,000 and 15,000 towns and
villages
that fit the pattern of small local communities. They are
distributed around the country, fewer in the densely
populated coastal states and more in the middle of the country
as well as in the less densely populated coastal areas.
WHAT KINDS
OF COMMUNITIES ARE THERE?
A century ago, almost all small communities were farming
communities. At that time half the population was farmers. Today
only 2-3% of the population are farmers. Still 20% of the people live in
small towns. Obviously, the small community now is more varied than
the farming communities of old. In addition to farming communities,
one finds small communities that are the locations of colleges and
universities. Many small communities do
manufacturing. And, as service workers become an
ever more increasing percentage of the work force, service
communities have evolved. The center of the economic life of some
communities is involved with some agency or arm of the federal or
state government. Finally some communities have become the
residencies of people in poverty, dependent on some form of welfare
support. The demographic variety of small communities has increased rapidly
since the days when “small” was associated with farming.
WHY ARE THEY
IMPORTANT?
Many Americans think that what is small and local is unimportant -
bigness is the measure of significance. Yet it is the details and
particulars of ordinary living that determine the quality of our
lives.
The small community is important because it has in it the
basic values, particularly in terms of our relationships with others, which are
eternal and universal. The history of America throughout the 20th
century was the movement of people from rural life to urban life. In
that sense the populations of small communities were the emigrants to
the larger community and, just as European emigrants set the pattern
for various cities, so rural immigrants set the values for the
cities. As more generations are born into the cities, problems arise
- showing up as violence, competition and individualism. The small
community has historically represented the best of the culture of character for
the nation.
WHAT IS
THEIR SIGNIFICANCE TODAY?
During the period of the depression, it was common for many people
who were suffering economic difficulties and job loss to return to
the homes of their parents. There was security and welcome there. It brought them in contact with values that
had been lost in
the famous period of the Roaring 20s. Today, there is a similar need
for many people to “return home.” People need an option to the
current trends of industrialization, urbanization, globalization and rugged
individualism. Environmental degradation, financial scandals, and a
threatening world situation require a different mode of life - one
that optimizes both physical and human resources. This option is the Small
Local Community,
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