Difference Between Society and Community
The difference between society and community is the sum of the organizational criteria that allow the choice between one and another modality when undertaking a certain project.
It is common for society and community to be concepts used interchangeably in common and everyday language.
However, both terms reflect different meanings. Especially, when dealing with existing forms of social grouping , both sociologically and economically and organizationally.
What is a society? And a community?
From the social point of view, communities comprise small groups of people, who organize themselves and fulfill a common task.
In this way, it is possible to find neighborhood communities that develop cultural or other projects.
On the other hand, society, formally speaking, can include the members of a certain territory, for example, the inhabitants with a certain nationality.
In the most business or economic aspect, commercial companies include those forms of organization with lucrative motivation , which people start up for the development of economic activities .
Difference Between Society and Community
Within the elements that separate the concepts of society and community, it is possible to classify the following notable points:
- Number of members : Commercial companies can be from one person to those made up of numerous shareholders, this being the case of large companies with shareholding participation . For their part, the communities have a large number of members.
- Heterogeneity : Less common ties in terms of values and culture are shared in associations than in communities. Thus, it occurs at the same time with economic, political and cultural ties.
- Interrelation: In the communities there is a level of common interrelation between the participants in equal conditions.
- Hierarchy : Having said the above, another difference is that hierarchy criteria are established in societies . Therefore, they have more complex organizational structures.
- Feeling of belonging : Compared to what happens in societies with lucrative objectives , belonging to a community is more subjective and valued by the members, since they share goals and values.
- Location : Although a company can cover wide and diverse territories when decentralized , the communities act in a unitary and localized manner from the geographical point of view.
That said, it is possible to note that a community is part of a society in its broadest sense, sociologically speaking. However, in the case of commercial companies, this is not the case.
Paradoxically, a commercial company can be part of an organization. This is what happens when business associations or sustainable communities are created , for example.
