Approaching the 21st century community

Approaching the concept of community from a socio-psychological perspective

By “community”, we are essentially referring to a group of living subjects who have a sense of bonding with each other because of shared attitudes, perceptions, experiences, goals, or other common areas of interest. Communities in modern times may be defined in terms of space, such as the neighbourhood, village, or city, but the spatial approach to community is not a one-way street, as we now have many communities around professions and skills, but also around political, cultural, or spiritual orientations. In these communities, as well as in communities that develop exclusively online, locality is not a key feature.

While the notion of community is therefore changing and expanding as we advance into the 21st century, the basic characteristics that define the sense of community seem to be present in the different forms of communities we know today. More specifically, the sense of belonging experienced by members of a community, the influence the community exerts on the lives of its members, the emotional bond between members, and the meeting of their needs constitute core dimensions of the notion of community. According to Community Psychology, a functioning community with the above characteristics contributes significantly to health and quality of life. It is in this light, moreover, that the important potential of self-help or mutual help groups for overcoming various health or psychosocial problems can be understood. These communities of peers form important sources of help for various issues, through the development of mutual support relationships, the use of their experiential knowledge, the creation of social networks and the strengthening of their social capital in general. 

Furthermore, the concepts of mutual help and solidarity and the strengthening, through them, of the social capital of the members of a community constitute the added value of communities beyond the field of health and psychosocial problems. Communities that are based on meaningful relationships of mutual aid are characterised by sustainability and effectiveness in terms of the objectives they set. It is in this respect that we see, for example, the growing preoccupation with fostering a sense of community in business environments. In the field of the Social Solidarity Economy in particular, the notion of community and the relationships of mutual aid and solidarity between members contribute significantly to the sustainability of ventures in the field. 

The importance of studying communities within their historical, sociopolitical, economic, and cultural contexts is being highlighted by critical approaches in the social sciences, in particular Social and Community Psychology, but also Social Anthropology and Folklore Studies. A detached view of the community from the contexts in which it develops leads to a distorted understanding of its potential, its prospects, and its very existence. It often leads to an idealised view of what constitutes a community and is usually associated exclusively with conventional, locally defined community organisation, often without a productive basis. However, as we know from the traditional communities of the past, the presence of economic and productive activity is an essential part of a functional community. Another important misconception that often arises from such a decontextualized view of community is the inability to comprehend the new forms of community organisation that lack a localism component or are entirely online.

Emerging challenges

The acknowledgement of the widening and changing concept of community in an environment of constant and intense changes in social organisation raises a number of key challenges and open questions. These include the following:

• What is the importance of communal formation and functioning in the contemporary socio-political context?
• Do members of communities that are not spatially and locally defined have a similar commitment to their communities?
• How are communities that develop in online environments or operate in hybrid form understood by those who do not participate in them? Is communal identity recognized in these forms of social organisation? 
• How can new forms of communal organisation be linked to traditional forms of communal organisation? How can, for example, a newly established community of digital nomads, growing in a semi-mountainous region of the country, be organically and functionally linked to the local community and create a different kind of communal organisation? 
• Can many of the contemporary forms of communal organisation become parts of larger community forms, and if so, in what way? 

The challenge of sustainable and functional communities in the 21st century

Dealing with the aforementioned challenges creates a field for productive discussion and action around the issue of communities in the 21st century and is linked to the main question: Are there terms and conditions for communities to be viable and functional in the world of today? Before answering this question, we need to ask ourselves whether communal formation and functioning remain necessary components of social evolution. If the challenge is for evolution to involve the whole of society, then community has a central role to play.

The science of Community Psychology and, in particular, its critical strands propose a specific framework that leads to inclusive, functional, and sustainable communal formation. The main pillars of the proposed framework are: participation and leading role of the stakeholders; democratic operation; mutual aid and solidarity relations as a basic characteristic of any communal framework; equal access to resources; emphasis on the acceptance of diversity; respect for the right to self-identify; transparency and accountability as basic components of communal functioning. The adoption of decolonizing perspectives and practices that facilitate the meeting of real needs and the unmediated action of those directly concerned are key to communal development. In turn, this condition leads to significant stakeholder commitment to the community’s goals and, therefore, greater chances of sustainable functioning.

The formation of communities and their individual functions often require the collaboration of scientists from different fields who contribute to communal development. It is important that the role of these scientists and their practices fit into the framework proposed above by Community Psychology. The empowerment and emancipation of a community pass through the active engagement of its members and the simultaneous rejection of rationales for assigning problem-solving to tech-savvy experts. Scientists who are interested in working with a communal orientation and who have reference to critical community approaches need to question the traditional models of community intervention in which they have been trained. An important methodological framework for intervention is offered by Participatory Action Research. It is a methodology that ensures the active and largely equal participation of stakeholders at all stages of an intervention, from the identification of needs to the design of actions, their implementation, evaluation, and redesign. Any discussion on the concept of community and its empowerment practices necessarily includes a discussion on the disciplines involved.

An honest and unconstrained interdisciplinary dialogue between disciplines such as Social and Community Psychology, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Social Folklore Studies, History, Political Science, Geography, and Economics, as well as the use of theoretical currents such as decolonial studies, the Commons, and Decolonization, is a basic prerequisite for a meaningful understanding and good use of the concept of Community in the 21st century. At the same time, there is a need for epistemological assumptions and scientific practices that allow for the equal dialogue and participation of those directly involved in communities, as well as social and ecological movements. Highlighting their discourse and placing them in the role of interlocutors and co-creators of new concepts and practices is not only a practice in line with the aforementioned critical scientific approaches. It is a basic presupposition for a meaningful understanding of community dynamics and their use in a different, inclusive, and socially just model of development.

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