What is the meaning of community in social science perspective? 

• Historically and politically, the understanding of the community can be traced to the community structure of ancient Greece called polis or city-state. This structure is protected by outer walls, and within its walls, public spaces such as temples and government buildings are found. The polis was centered in the urban area and was surrounded by the  countryside.
• Sociologists understand the community with Gemeinschaft and Gesellchaft, and in terms of the institutional perspective. Gemeinschaft is characterized by the presence of a sense of what is common in terms of identity, norms, and relationships. Gesellchaft, on the other hand, is primarily formal, individualistic, impersonal, and transactional. In the institutional perspective, social institutions–such as the market and the state–driven by an ideological position, act to promote people’s welfare..

What is the definition of community in terms of civil perspective? Civil society is the ecosystem that influences social change outside of the family, market or government. Often referred to as the space where we act for the common good, civil society aims to connect poor or marginalized people with groups that can mobilize support to help.

A grassroots or bottoms-up movement aims to elicit change in the community coming from its non-leading members through collective action. This is in contrast with the top-down approach, where a change in the community is elicited by the leadership or the establishment and is simply complied with by the rest of the community population.

Communities are built through individuals’ constant and significant interaction in a given geographical space. Through these continuous interactions, norms are formed to maintain them. These norms are common or shared, paving the way for the community. Etymologically, community derives from the Latin word communis
the disciplines, professions, and occupations that seek to use the social sciences to impact communities, organizations, and persons- aim to build just and humane communities concerned with the common good.

Have you noticed some recent changes in your community? The changes in the community are brought about by environmental, social and cultural experiences. Whether it is desirable or undesirable development that impacts within the community. People adopt the changes and it has shaped their way of life. These changes
are called Community dynamics. It aims to bring positive changes in all aspects of community through community actions. There are also instances that community dynamics affect or inhibit community action or positive change in the community.

Community actions aim to engage, understand, and empower communities in delivering vital services to its members. Community action, however, for it to be effective, should consider community dynamics. Understanding the inner mechanisms of the community would help community organizers in assessing the factors that may realize and/or prevent community action and positive change to happen. In addition, knowing community dynamics would ensure that all sectors would engage and participate in such initiatives, and
respective interests would be taken into account. For instance, for a holistic education intervention to work, community organizers should study first the family/community situation of the students. Studying their family/community situations would uncover why such educational challenges occur–education is not a priority among some families due to their economic situation which necessitated these students to work.

Knowing the various perspectives that define the community contextualizes the understanding of a community’s inner mechanisms or dynamics. This understanding of the community dynamics, particularly of how people adopt and induce change is important in initiating community action that aims to empower the said communities. Having a knowledge of how the community was formed would empower the social scientist in assessing the factors or resources that allowed such flourishing to occur, the challenges that they had to address in order to realize such flourishing, the skills tapped by the community in using these resources, as well as opportunities and threats to the community.