Community Learning Development Resource 300 – 02
COMMUNITY AND NEIGHBOURHOOD
SUMMARY
Community and neighbourhood are common descriptors for populations of people and/or localities where people live. The nature of these can be defined in a number of ways. This resource (300-02) explores some of these definitions and the perceptions held about their nature. Implications for working in neighbourhoods or communities are explored.
Community
There are a number of different ways of defining and naming what we mean by a ‘community. In community development and regeneration work we need to have a good understanding of the communities we seek to work with. On the whole communities tend to be understood and described in terms of their people, more than simply their location.
The nature of a community might be:
- the geographical area where people live, in which feel they have important things in common and some sense of awareness of themselves as a group. The area often has a distinctive name and commonly understood definition and territorial boundaries
- a group of people with some definitive and unifying characteristics, like a common history or sharing a common culture based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender or identity
- a group which has interests and concerns that are important to them in common with others, for example political beliefs, a common purpose, a job or profession or shared participation in particular pastimes, for example in arts or sports
Neighbourhood
A neighbourhood is commonly defined by its nature as a geographical place or locality. However less frequently we do find neighbourhoods being identified on the basis of who lives there. Thus the range of understandings of what a neighbourhood can be, include:
- the area surrounding where someone lives
- the local area around a focal point or within specified boundaries
- a particular place or location which has physical characteristics, differentiating it from surrounding areas
- a local area labelled by the nature of the people who live there, e.g., a white neighbourhood; a black neighbourhood; a middle-class neighbourhood, etc. – the communities within a neighbourhood.
Working in communities and neighbourhoods
Community work concerned with improving the lives of local people may be named in a variety of ways, using the terms neighbourhood and community. For example, within a single organisation some workers on the one hand engage in ‘community development’, whilst others are engaged in ‘neighbourhood regeneration’. Clearly it is important that there are shared understandings of the commonality and differences between both areas of work, particularly if the two work purposes and methodologies are different, but need to interface, collaboratively and effectively.
Communities and neighbourhoods are collective terms for groups of people and in both settings the human relationships, ties and interactions, socially and culturally are significant elements in our understanding, together with an informed appreciation of the environmental characteristics in which the people live, learn and develop.
The use of both terms always needs to be made with sensitivity to the perceptions of people who live in neighbourhoods and communities.
Workers and agencies need to recognise that communities and neighbourhoods are both identified and understood internally by the people within them, and externally by the wider society, and that there are often significant differences between these two perceptions.
Prompts for reflection and Discussion
- Identify a local community and/or a local neighbourhood from your knowledge and experience and explore the characteristics which seem to define and shape its origin and nature.
- Why should work initiatives and interventions be focussed, targeted and delivered into particular areas known as communities or neighbourhoods?