Even the ancient Greeks knew that man is a public animal. Without society, there would not be a single person on Earth, since only among other people with certain behaviors,
cultural norms and rules does a person become a person. The social communities and social groups into which a person falls in the course of his life are both a teacher and a guarantor of the existence of these social rules. In this article, we briefly outline the definition and types of communities and groups.
The concepts of social community and social group are studied by psychology, sociology and social philosophy. Scientists did not agree on a clear definition of these social phenomena, so there are many theories among the scientific community. So, for example, scientists are still arguing, which is the determining factor. Whether a person determines the structure of groups through his social actions , or do social communities and social groups determine human behavior. In sociology, these schools were called nominalism and realism, respectively.
In the narrow sense of the word, social communities and social groups are understood as an association of people with an internal, clear relationship that acts as a collective factor in social life. In the broad sense of the word, these terms mean a group of people with common characteristics and signs.
In the first case, such associations are an active participant in public life. Social communities and social groups are constantly transformed in the process of change, development or degradation of society. Their number is steadily growing up with the development and complication of society. For example, social communities and social groups that act as social movements are some of the factors of significant social change. Take, for example, social groups and organizations such as Green Peace, the feminist movement at the beginning of the 20th century, or the LGBT movement. A well-known French sociologist studying social movements is Alain Touraine.
The famous German sociologist Ferdinand Tennis in his works identified such types of social communities and groups as Geymeinshaft (communities) and Gesellschaft (societies). In the first form, the individual is inextricably linked with his social community, he dissolves in it. Tennis emphasized that it was in such communities that partnership developed. A striking example of such communities is a village, army collective or tribes. If, while walking along the street, you saw a friend and looked away, or exchanged a couple of insignificant words, then you live in a Gesellschaft society. Such a society is individualized, a person for another person is a means, not an end. “Loneliness in the crowd”, a high level of anonymity are familiar to every resident of this society.
This is not to say that any of the species is unnatural and wrong for human existence. The first type is inherent in traditional and archaic societies, while the second is in more developed and complex societies, including a large number of people, their interests and social institutions.