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VCE Sociology
Unit 3 Outcome 1
Community and society
‘The sociological concept and history of
‘community’, including the various
meanings attached to the concept’
What is a community?
• In groups, discuss what you think a
“community” is.
• Consider the following:
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How does it differ from a “group”?
How does it differ from a “city”?
How does it differ from “society”?
What does a community need in order to be
classified as a community?
▫ What different types of communities are there?
Types of communities
• Same geographical area
• Similar experiences
• Share a government
• Similar ideas or values
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Northern suburbs
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Moreland residents
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A local church
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Lygon St Italian traders
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Disability support group
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Nurses
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Christmas Island refugees
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Conservation group
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Sporting club
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Supporters of Joy FM
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Retirement village
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Second Life
• Connected to an institution • Similar interests
• Same culture/language
• Similar lifestyle
• Community organisations
• Intentional
• Shared occupation
• Internet-based
Definitions of community
• Read the “Definitions of community” handout
then complete the “Changing definitions of
community” handout.
▫ NOTE: In sociology, the concept of community
has led to significant debate, and sociologists are
yet to reach agreement on a definition of the term.
There were ninety-four discrete definitions of the
term by the mid-1950s.
One definition of community
• A community is a group of people who share
social relationships through being:
▫ geographically close to each other and/or
▫ being in regular contact with each other, and
▫ who share similarities, interests and ideologies
What about a “city”?
• There is much debate regarding the difference
between a community and a city
• There is no single definition of “city”…
• Many cities have established laws and taxes that
govern behaviour (e.g. organised government)
• Most cities have advanced systems for utilities (e.g.
gas, water, electricity), sanitation, garbage disposal,
housing, transportation, etc
• In Australia, a city refers to a local government area
(e.g. City of Boroondara) or capital city containing
multiple suburbs and urban sprawl (e.g. Melbourne)
What about “society”?
• Society often refers to the people of a region, country or even the world
• It is a self-perpetuating, human grouping occupying a relatively bounded
territory, possessing its own more or less distinctive cultural identity, language,
social solidarity, hierarchical organisation and institutions
• A society may be:
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a particular ethnic group, such as Hispanic and Latino Americans
a nation state, such as Iceland
a broader cultural group, such as a Western society
a professional association, such as the Australian Psychological Society
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hunters and gatherers
simple agricultural or horticultural
advanced agricultural
industrial
special (e.g. sedentary fishing societies that rely on fishing for food and trade)
• Gerhard Lenski (1974) differentiated societies based on their level of technology,
communication and economy:
Are these communities?
• Identify and explain whether or not the
following groups are a community:
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Australians
Greenpeace members
Hawthorn citizens
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
Teachers at SSSC
Muslim Australians
Refugees
Hawthorn YMCA members
Women
Migrants
Facebook page members
Hawthorn Retirement Village residents
Gay and lesbians
Types of communities
• Hillery (1995, as cited in Lee & Newby 1983)
defined communities according to type.
▫ Type 1: geographical location/no relationship
▫ Type 2: geographical location/local social system
▫ Type 3: no location/shared sense of identity
Lee, D. & Newby, H. (1983). ‘Industrial Society as Regress – Tonnies and ‘Community’’, The Problem of Sociology: An Introduction to the Discipline, London: Routledge, pp. 42-4.
Type 1 communities
• Type 1
▫ A population that resides in a particular area – a
geographical expression – with a fixed and
bounded locality
▫ No special relationship other than that they reside
in the same place
▫ Worsley (1987) refers to this as a ‘community of
locality’
 e.g. the Gippsland community or a suburb or
municipality
Type 1 communities
• Issues with Type 1 communities
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Kitty Genovese
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Lived in Queens, New York
Was stabbed to death near her home in 1964
Was heard screaming, "Oh my God, he stabbed me! Help me!”
at approximately 3.15am
One of the neighbors shouted at the attacker, "Let that girl
alone!” and the attacker fled
Nobody went to Kitty’s aide and the attacker returned
Over a 30-minute period the attacker raped her, killed her, and
stole about $49 from her
After this, police were called and arrived shortly after, at
approximately 4.15am
This is an example of the bystander effect (or diffusion of
responsibility) in many Type 1 communities
Picture sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese
Type 2 communities
• Type 2
▫ A special type of local social system which is
linked to a particular geographical location
▫ Small scale, face-to-face, relatively traditional,
familial settlements, and has ‘community spirit’
▫ Stacey (1969) has referred to this as a ‘network of
interrelationships’
 e.g. a small country town
Type 2 communities
• Issues with Type 2 communities
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Matthew Wayne Shepard
Lived in Casper, Wyoming
After admitting he was gay, Shepard was robbed, pistol whipped,
tortured, tied to a fence in a remote, rural area, and left to die
He was found impaled 18-hours later in a coma
The murderers originally pleaded the “gay panic defence”,
arguing that they were driven to temporary insanity by alleged
sexual advances
The anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, led by
Fred Phelps, picketed Shepard's funeral
This is an example of what may happen when people do not
conform to the social norms within their homogenous Type 2
community
Picture sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Wayne_Shepard
Type 3 communities
• Type 3
▫ Social groups who share a type of relationship
and sense of identity
▫ Not necessarily geographic
▫ People seek out those with similar interests
wherever they happen to live
▫ Worsley (1987) refers to this as ‘community spirit’
without a geographic area
 e.g. Joy FM gay and lesbian community, nurses
Type 3 communities
• Issues with Type 3 communities
▫ Some Type 3 communities promote individualism,
social isolation, anonymity, alter egos, lack of
accountability, etc
▫ Research on 20,000 students by Professor Donna
Cross from Edith Cowan University found:
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10% of teenagers and children have experienced some
form of sustained bullying using technology
Young people who have been bullied are “much more
likely to feel depressed, anxious, their self-esteem is
affected, there are some students that report suicide
ideation; it has very serious immediate effects and longterm effects
http://www.ecu.edu.au/news/media-releases/2009/06/ecu-researchers-uncover-covert-bullying-in-schools
Picture sourced from http://cybershack.com/t.php/Youth+To+Advise+On+Cyber-Bullying
Traditional/Modern Communities
Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft
• Communities can be defined in reference to preand post-industrial revolution
• Pre-industrial revolution
• Tradition community
• Gemeinschaft
• Post-industrial revolution
• Modern community
• Gesellschaft
Traditional community
• Traditionally, a community was:
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small
geographically-based
homogeneous (the same)
shared intimate connections (often familial)
self-reliant with regard to meeting the vast majority of
its social, political and economic institutional needs
▫ stable (membership does not vary much)
▫ exclusive (keeps outsiders out)
• Aka, pre-modern or gemeinschaft
Gemeinschaft
• A term used by German sociologist Ferdinand
Tonnies (1887, as cited in Goetz 1991) which
refers to relationships that are close and long
lasting
▫ Traditional villages with bonds based on blood
(kinship), mind (sense of being a distinct people)
and land (ensuring ties with a particular place)
▫ Close-knit, culturally homogenous, regulated by
the moral laws laid down by church and family
▫ Little social or geographic mobility
Goetz, P.W (ed.) 1991, ‘Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft’, in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edn, Macropaedia 5, University of Chicago, Sydney, p. 169.
Modern community
• Modern communities are often more:
▫ inclusive and exclusive depending on membership
criteria (which is more fluid)
▫ interest rather than geographically-based
▫ more likely to be heterogeneous in nature (i.e.
members are “different”)
▫ more tolerant toward their members and the
broader community
▫ Institutionally incomplete (in terms of social
influence)
▫ varied in size, stability and relationships
Gesellschaft
• A term used by German sociologist Ferdinand
Tonnies (1887, as cited in Goetz 1991) which
refers to relationships that are individualistic
and impersonal
▫ Instead of being guided by traditional norms, people
increasingly follow their own selfish interest
▫ Individuals adopt a ‘contractual’ attitude, becoming
more deliberate, rational and calculating in their social
transactions
▫ Social relationships are impersonal, superficial and
fleeting
Goetz, P.W (ed.) 1991, ‘Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft’, in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edn, Macropaedia 5, University of Chicago, Sydney, p. 169.
Gesellschaft influences
• Urbanisation
▫ Living in a suburban community, often without “connections”
▫ The process of a population moving from rural (country) to
urban (city) locations around the 18th centuty
▫ It is a key factor that has impacted on both the understanding
of community and the way people interact with communities
▫ The major urbanisation movement began in the late 1770s to
middle 1880s as people moved out or were forced out of their
rural farming settlements (villages) and into the cities
▫ This was caused by two ‘revolutions’: agrarian and industrial
Gesellschaft influences
• Agrarian revolution
▫ Initial shift from small groups leading a nomadic life
(moving around) to larger sedentary groups (staying in the
same place) occupying land to grow their own food around
10,000 years ago
▫ Secure shelter and steady food supply led to increased
population
▫ Domesticated animals provided food, clothing, manual
labour and transport
▫ British Agrarian Revolution (that helped launch the
Industrial Revolution) happened around the 18th century
changed the way in which agriculture was practiced,
moving from small, self-sufficient agriculture to large-scale,
group enterprises
▫ Lead to specialisation and urbanisation
Gesellschaft influences
• Industrial Revolution
• Advancement in agriculture, technology,
manufacturing/production, textiles, communication,
transportation, etc in the 18th century
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e.g. machine-based manufacturing, steam power
• Involved a move from small-scale manual-labour
based production in cottages and homes to large-scale
machine production in factories
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e.g. “cottage industry” to “mass produced”
• Factories needed space and a workforce, and excess
agricultural and factory production could be exported
Different meanings of community
• Read over the previous PowerPoint slides then
identify and example of each concept of
community:
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Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Gemeinschaft
Gesellschaft
Traditional
Modern
Ferdinand Tonnies (1855-1936)
• Respond to the following questions about
gemeinschaft and gesellschaft according to
Tonnies:
▫ In Europe, UK and USA people began moving
from gemeinschaft to gesellschaft after
industrialisation and urbanisation. Why?
▫ What do you think causes large changes to
society?
▫ Could we ever have such a change again?
Explain.
Exposed: City Life DVD
• Watch the DVD
• Identify two representations of “community”
from the documentary
▫ Justify your representations by referencing
sociological theory
• Explain why the community is important to the
people or how they benefit from it
• Is there a common group of characteristics that
foster a “sense of community”?
TO DO
• Write definitions of the following terms in your
glossary:
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Community
Gemeinschaft
Gesellschaft
Modern community
Traditional community
Type 1 community
Type 2 community
Type 3 community