Community

A community is a social unit of any size that shares common values, or that is situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a village or town). It is a group of people who are connected by durable relations that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties, and who mutually define that relationship as important to their social identity and practice. Although communities are usually small, community may also refer to large groups, such as national communities, international communities, and virtual communities.

The word "community" is derived from the Old French comuneté which comes from the Latin communitas (from Latin communis, things held in common).

In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, and risks, may be shared in common, affecting the identity of the participants, and their degree of cohesiveness.

Perspectives from various disciplines

Community studies

Community studies is an academic field drawing on both sociology and anthropology and the social research methods of ethnography and participant observation in the study of community. In academic settings around the world, community studies is variously a sub-discipline of anthropology or sociology, or an independent discipline. It is often interdisciplinary and geared toward practical applications rather than purely theoretical perspectives. Community studies is sometimes combined with other fields, i.e., "Urban and Community Studies," "Health and Community Studies," or "Family and Community studies."

Community service

Community service is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions. Performing community service is not the same as volunteering, since it is not always performed on a voluntary basis. It may be performed for a variety of reasons:

High school graduation and community work

Many educational jurisdictions in the United States require students to perform community service hours to graduate from high school. In some high schools in Washington, for example, students must finish 200 hours of community service to get a diploma. Some school districts in Washington, including Seattle Public Schools, differentiate between community service and "service learning," requiring students to demonstrate that their work has contributed to their education. If a student in high school is taking an AVID course, community service is needed. Whether American public schools could require volunteer hours was challenged in Immediato v. Rye Neck School District, but the court found no violation.

Education Week

Education Week is a United States national newspaper covering K–12 education. It is published by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, which is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington DC. The newspaper publishes 37 issues a year, three of them special annual reports (Quality Counts, Technology Counts, and Diplomas Count).

History

In 1957, Corbin Gwaltney, founder and then editor of Johns Hopkins Magazine for alumni of Johns Hopkins University, and a group of other university alumni magazine editors came together to discuss writing on higher education and decided to form Editorial Projects for Education (EPE), a nonprofit educational organization. Soon after, Gwaltney left Johns Hopkins Magazine to become the first full-time employee of the newly created EPE, starting in an office in his apartment in Baltimore and later moving to an office near the Johns Hopkins campus. He realized that higher education would benefit from a news publication. Gwaltney and other board members of EPE met to plan a new publication. In 1966, EPE published the first issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

New Zealand

New Zealand (/njuːˈziːlənd/ new-ZEE-lənd, Māori: Aotearoa [aɔˈtɛaɾɔa]) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses – that of the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu – and numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of animal, fungal and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.

Somewhere between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that were to become New Zealand, and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, became the first European to sight New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the British Crown and Māori Chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, making New Zealand a British colony. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.5 million is of European descent; the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is mainly derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, with English predominant.