A while back (in a previous Rosieland space that I ran) I posed the challenge of sharing a definition of community. I’m discontinuing that space, but wanted to record some conversations we had as people have continued to find it useful.
I’d also like to personally thank Samantha Venia from SociallyConstructed.Online who contribute a lot to this original conversation on the definition of community.
I hereby present you with “definitions of community”
That various members of the community submitted.
The definition of a community has a stable, clear definition in social science. Knowing this definition makes it very obvious what you need to care about, build, and measure. I'm not saying don't have your own definition, but I am saying don't ignore 80 years of social science.
A community is a well-defined unit of culture:
The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, experiences, practices and artifacts that characterize a defined group of people of any specific size.
— Samantha Venia at SociallyConstructed.Online
“A community is a connected group of people with something in common.” — Andrew Claremont
Community is where many-to-many value sharing happens. It’s the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear “greater than the sum of its parts”. — Ece Kurtaraner
Community is the condition of having an interest in common with other humans. — Michael Shillingford
A community is an entity that creates crucial sparks. — Simon Tomes
A ‘community’ is created over time around shared purpose, language and meaning, and the development of shared values, reciprocity and mutual trust in the longer term from being and doing together. — Myriam Laberge (via Tim Bonnemann)
“Community is a group of people coming together around a shared interest, situation, or goal and gaining value out of interacting with each other.” — Evan Hamilton
A community is a group of people united by a common identity and collective purpose who engage in activities together over time. Communities develop unique sets of shared values, principles, and norms that distinguish them from others and provide members with a sense of belonging. — The Open Source Way (via Tim Bonnemann)
I think true community requires a few things: shared values, shared effort, and shared passion. — Troy Young
A diverse group of people coming together for a common purpose, goal, or affinity. — Bri Leever
Community: A group of people who come together around a shared purpose and work together for shared outcomes. — Tim McDonald
A successful community is one where resonance and dissonance both work in reciprocity. — Monika Jiang
“Communities are places where people come together to take on other people’s problems for themselves.” — Yurii Lazaruk
"Community is a defined group marked by a shared passion that encourages them to get together and collaborate to exchange value over time. " — Reinaldo Parreiras
“Within a business context, a community is a peer network coming to brand so they can discuss and respond to topics of ideation, knowledge gathering, clarification, and advancement.” — Dani Weinstein
“Community: Building real authentic, tangible relationships that translate to enormous goal-oriented impact. […] “Communities are not lead lists. They are benevolent resources for your business. They are for relationship-building, problem-solving, and altruistic influence. It just so happens they have great value for the organizations at their center.” — Michael Cooksey
Do you have a definition of ‘community’ to add? Drop it in the comments and I’ll add it to this list.
