American culture
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AMST101_Lecture_Community.pptxCommunity
A brief introduction
What is community? A community is a distinctive realm of cultural participation, bestowing a meaningful sense of identity upon the individual.
For example, in urban/suburban ethnography you can think of the ethnographer as looking at specific communities or subsets of larger communities.
4 different types of communities:
Location: The most common usage of the word community indicates a large group living in close proximity.
Examples of “local” community: Neighborhoods, municipalities, planned communities
Place: people bound together because of where they work, visit or otherwise spend a continuous portion of their time.
Examples of place: Coffeehouse, bar, gym.
Identity: group of people with a common identity other than location. The members of this type of community often interact regularly.
Examples of identity-based community: Professional-community group of people with the same or related occupations (such as unions), religious groups, clubs/organizations based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.
Interest: The members of this type of community can also be bonded via a common interest or passion. These people exchange ideas and thoughts about the given passion, but may know (or care) little about each other outside of this area. Participation in a community of interest can be compelling, entertaining and create a ‘sticky’ community where people return frequently and remain for extended periods.
Examples of interest based community: Rugby fans, reddit users, Game of Thrones fans.
Applying concepts to real life:
Reflect on your own life and identify 2 communities that you feel that you are a part of. Are these communities location, interest, place, or identity-based communities? How has each of these two different communities helped shape your identity?
