ABSTRACT
The importance of the concept of community lies in its very ambiguity. Like the concept of the human, it embodies both the descriptive and the ideal; it recalls to us our power to make as well as to accept, to act as well as to behave. Community refers to whatever groups exist; It also refers to our aspirations for the groups. Social science began with the efforts of the Greeks to make what existed Into something nearer to their hearts' desires. Since no effort succeeds perfectly, since all achievement entails unanticipated side effects, since we must pay for any achievement by yielding alternative opportunities, it is probably best to think of community as a variable, existing to some degree in many collectives, to an extreme degree in a few.
