CONCEPTS AND PERSPECTIVES

OF COMMUNITY
 OBJECTIVES

01 03
To gain understanding
To differentiate different
to the importance of
community perspectives
community

02
Definitions of
community
WHAT IS A COMMUNITY
[Ancient] Conceptions about community started
earlier in the East. [In China, India, Japan, etc.]
Traces of these ideas are found in their Religions.

WHICH IDEAS DO YOU THINK ARE THOSE?

RELIGIONS THAT DEFINE
COMMUNITY
01 SHINTOISM
Core values: tradition , family , nature ,
cleanliness and ritual observation ​

02 CONFUCIANISM
Ethics focus on familial duty, loyalty, and
humaneness ​

03 BUDDHISM
Liberation from Samsara; ‘ repeatedness ’,
‘cyclic change’ (community may inflict cyclic
change) ​
WHAT IS A COMMUNITY
[Ancient] There is different focus in the West. Their
focus is on metaphysics and the individual. The
closest idea that we can relate to community is
Heraclitus’ idea that “there is a constant flux”, and
Empedocles’ idea of “love” and “strife”. ​

HOW ARE THEIR IDEA RELATED TO THE CONCEPT

OF "COMMUNITY"?
IS COMMUNITY AN AGENT OF CHANGE
OR AN AGENT OF STAGNATION?
Nietzschean idea of relationship of self and
community: ubergang and untergang​

ÜBERGANG
- over-going
- "uber" = over

UNTERGANG​
- down-going
- "unter" = down
IS COMMUNITY AN AGENT OF CHANGE
OR AN AGENT OF STAGNATION?

Change is central to community; for when people

change, community changes and when
community changes, people also change.
(also, otherwise)
What is lovable in man is that he is
an over-going (Übergang) and a
down-going(Untergang).

- Friedrich Nietzsche,
Thus Spoke Zarathustra

 WHAT IS A COMMUNITY?
West’s concept of community can be tied with the Greek
concept ‘agora’, also known as marketplace

Social interaction is fundamental to community. One way

to understand community is to look at how social
interaction ‘progresses’.

This is central to Virgilio Enriquez’ work in kapwa.

Kapwa is uniquely Filipino. But, there are other similar

concepts such as nakama. [nakama vs tomodachi]​
​nakama - represents someone with whom the person
shares a goal
tomodachi - friend
 WHAT IS A COMMUNITY?

The progression of Enriquez' definition of "Kapwa":

Pakikitungo - transaction/ civility with ​

Pakikisalamuha - interaction with ​

Pakikilahok - joining/ participating with ​

Pakikibagay - in conformity with/ in accord with

Pakikisama - being along with

 WHAT IS A COMMUNITY?

The term community is derived from the Old

French word comunete, which comes from the
Latin word communitas sharing the meaning of
“public spirit” and “shared in common”.

Basically, ‘kapwa’
IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY

In a psychological perspective, we can look at

community as a pillar of the self, of our ‘self’.​

This can be observed through the Adlerian notion of the

self—wherein man is viewed as a unit, a self-conscious
whole that functions as an open-system.

As an open system, the self requires the existence

of external forces that surrounds it [environment].
This can be ecological environment and/or social
environment. These environments are what we
would normally call ‘community’.​
IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY

We can also look at community as an entity not only

serving the self, the individual, but also serving the
community itself. Thus, certain paradigms, such as
conflict theory or social functionalism, may arise to
define a community’s significance.​
​
This can be valued in relation to an individual’s
rationalization of two concepts: the self and the
society; the I and the others.
 IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY

Community always changes while the ‘I’ and the

‘others’ are always interconnected. This often results
to conflicts coming from adjusting and re-adjusting
to changes.
​
How will the ‘I’ adjust itself to the ‘others’? How will
the ‘others’ adjust to the ‘I’? Should there be an
adjustment in the first place?
To answer those question
is to eventually answer
the question on why we
need to study community.
​