by Rukhsana Zulfiqar

Created on: December 27, 2006   Last Updated: April 01, 2007

Cities are composed of urban villagers, residential communities and settled neighborhood. The openness of the cities has led to their dynamism. Culture, class and religions are similar in a certain community, which are different in other communities. Development of communities leads to a collective consciousness, which adds cohesion, harmony and continuity to a group. Sense of community develops when people care for shared interests along with self-interest. Shared opinions and values also lead to the development of sense of citizenship in the people. Social dynamics responsible for community formation are emotional safety, sense of belongingness and shared values. Community is a shared physical place where people bind together for their living and work. Sense of place along with the sense of community stabilizes a community.

Transport infrastructure can be beneficial as well as harmful to community formation. Communication systems lead to flow of income and information, which promotes a healthy community. Global networks can harm the community formation by acquiring control over the cities and using their resources for their own benefit. Spatial configuration and segregation can be beneficial as well as destructive to the communities. Political, economic and demographic factors are involved in the spatial segmentation of communities. People may occupy a specific place for their rights and safety which can be beneficial to them in terms of safety and destructive as it would isolate them from the other communities and can lead to the underdeveloped communities.
Tension is often created when people move in and out of cities or settle other cities of the world, which have different cultures. Cities are prone to numerous orders and disorders from both within and beyond the cities. Social mixes in the community can lead to community formation with people having shared interests. It can also lead to wide class differences and lack of social mobility. A social process, which inhibits community formation in a certain city, might not be so intense in the other city.
Cities continuously evolve with people moving in and out of the city. Power and influence of global networks have also changed the environment of the cities making them more developed or under control of foreign forces. Thus cities are the points of interaction where there is continuous movement of information, ideas and finance in and out of the city leading to evolvement of a variety of communities with a variety of cultures and clustering of people. This promotes the development of communities as increased interaction helps people to keep in pace with the world. In the words of M. Scott Peck; " There can be vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability. There can be no peace and ultimately no life without community." (M. Scott Peck, 1987)

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