Sense of community
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Sense of community (or psychological sense of community) is a concept in social psychology (or more narrowly, in community psychology), which focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation, setting, or other features. Sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, and others have theorized about and carried out empirical research on community, but the psychological approach asks questions about the individual's perception, understanding, attitudes, feelings, etc. about community and his or her relationship to it and to others' participation - indeed to the complete, multifaceted community experience.
In his seminal 1974 book, psychologist Seymour B. Sarason proposed that Psychological Sense of Community become the conceptual center for the psychology of community, asserting that it "is one of the major bases for self-definition." By 1986 it was regarded as a central overarching concept for Community Psychology (Sarason, 1986; Chavis & Pretty, 1999).
Among theories of Sense of Community proposed by psychologists, McMillan & Chavis's (1986) is by far the most influential, and is the starting point for most of the recent research in the field. It is discussed in detail below.
See also
- Anomie, (The Division of Labor in Society, Émile Durkheim)
- Communitarianism, (The Spirit of Community, Amitai Etzioni)
- Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (Community and Society, Ferdinand Tönnies)
- Imagined communities
- Interest network
- Online participation
- Social solidarity
- Community practice (Social Work)
