“Community” in Review from an International Perspective: A Snapshot Examination of Its History, Salient Issues, Creation and Development in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and Latin America

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of community and its various aspects from an international perspective. This is the second article to introduce the inaugural issue of this journal. The first article “Community” in Review: A Snapshot Examination of Its History, Salient Issues, Creation and Development in the United States,” delved into the issues, challenges, and conceptualization of community from a U.S. lens. This second article examines mostly the same aspects of community as the first article, but focuses on communities in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South and Latin America. Like the first article on the U.S., the main purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth discussion of both the physical and social components of communities to highlight their central role to both people and society. In addition, this paper explores the various research methodologies used to investigate communities in these different regions, and highlights how these methods have been employed to advance communities. Approaches to Community development, the different types of challenges international communities experience, and how these communities interact with society from a mico, meso, and macro perspective are discussed. Finally, a brief overview of the limitations for the current paper is provided, and potential avenues for future research are suggested.