What is a community?

The following is offered by Dr. John Plodinec, Associate Director for Community Resilience Certification at CARRI.

When we talk about community resilience, discussion usually gravitates to "What is resilience?" We all think we know what a community is, but we know we're not sure what resilience is. However, defining community may be almost as important as defining resilience. A useful definition that reflects what CARRI is all about is:

"A community is a group of individuals and organizations bound together by geography and perceived self-interest to efficiently carry out common functions needed by the group."

Defining community in this manner is worthwhile because it leads to a valuable corollary: communities collapse when the perception of self-interest withers. This goes far toward explaining why so many rural communities are under duress: their original reason for existence - often, the railroad - no longer is as important. Former members of many rural communities have come to the realization that the benefits of belonging to their rural community no longer match the investment required. And so they leave, placing additional strains on those left behind.

This definition also helps explain why some community partnerships succeed and some fail. Successful partnerships have to be founded on mutual perceived benefit. I won't partner with you if I don't expect to get back more than I invest in the partnership. Even for flourishing partnerships, the partnership is likely to founder if the cost-benefit balance changes for one of the partners.