THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF SOCIAL LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT
THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF SOCIAL LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT

Summary/Abstract: There are no concepts in social sciences and in humanities that would enjoy unanimous agreement over their meaning. What is more, potential efforts at conceptual simplification and unification have led to the opposite effect, of complication of categories and diversification. The concept of community has a respectable history, especially in sociology, but it has also generated a genuine semantic and interpretative inflation. The current study aims to provide a version of the definition of communitarian reality, by setting it against social reality. Starting from arguments that justify the presence of homo socialis both in community and in society, we conclude with the aspects that produce the attractiveness and comfort of social life, especially in community areas: consanguinity, relational density, unconditioned solidarity, affectivity, mutual tolerance, educational similarity, elective affinities etc. The favourable image of a community is not constructed by tracing a detestable profile of society, as evidence confirms the presence of communitarian elements in society, as well as of societal elements in community. Also, by capitalising on the premise that communities offer individuals various advantages, we can establish the typological affiliation of community groups according to two differentiating criteria: the number of common elements recognised by community members and the degree of community stability. Since it has become increasingly frequent currently to talk about the return to community, in the end of our study we describe a series of socio-cultural and political circumstances that can fine-tune the contemporary concept of community.

• Details
• Contents