Understanding Community, Solidarity, and Citizenship

• Understanding Community, Solidarity, and Citizenship are key concepts.

What is a Community?

• Community refers to a group sharing the same space or common traits..
• It involves a sense of fellowship resulting from shared attitudes, interests, and goals.
• Community is also a place where people work, live, and survive.
• It is composed of individuals occupying a common territory, sharing traditions, and served by local institutions, with a sense of common interest.

Types of Community

• Urban, rural, suburban communities, and slums.
• Urban communities are cities composed of developed buildings like malls and skyscrapers, featuring mass transportation.
• Urban areas have high population density and limited natural resources.
• Rural communities are provinces with farmland and natural spaces where people are distanced from each other.
• Rural communities have lower population compared to urban areas.
• Suburban communities are near cities, with lower population densities than urban but higher than rural areas.
• Suburban areas typically have houses with yards in neighborhoods.
• Slums are highly populated urban areas with closely packed, deteriorated housing and incomplete infrastructure inhabited mainly by disadvantaged families.

Community from Social Sciences Perspectives

• Sociology views community as a group following a social structure within a society, such as culture, norms, values, and status.
• Sociologists believe communities organize social life within a place or are bound by a sense of belonging.
• Psychology defines community as a field with a unique perspective for understanding individuals within their environment.
• It mainly focuses on the strengths and competencies of community members, rather than their problems.
• Anthropology characterizes the community by common interests, ecology, locality, or social system.
• Economics views communities as groups whose financial stability is essential, but not measured on how much wealth, but on the roles of people as relates to their sustainability.

Solidarity

• Solidarity is a created unity based on shared interests, objectives, standards, or sympathies.
• Solidarity, also known as social cohesion, represents the act of unity during obstacles in the community.

Types of Solidarity

• Mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity.
• Mechanical solidarity is bound by communal ties, emotional belonging, and mechanized routine, according to Emile Durkheim.
• Organic solidarity is bound by tasks needing accomplishment within an organized system.

Citizenship

• Citizenship is often synonymous with nationality, indicating an individual's legal membership in a state or nation.
• It indicates a sense of belonging, sharing the same sentiments and experiences, as well as participation to address said sentiments.
• According to Article IV of the 1987 Constitution, citizens are those born during its publication, those with citizen parents, and those naturalized.
• It states that Philippine citizenship can be lost or reacquired as the law provides.
• Dual allegiance is incongruent with the national interest.

Types of Citizenship

• These include jus sanguinis, jus soli, jus matrimonii, and naturalization.
• Jus sanguinis is determined by blood relations.
• Jus soli is determined by the place of birth.
• Jus matrimonii is citizenship by marriage where a person can choose nationality if marrying someone of different citizenship.
• Naturalization occurs through legal processes, dependent on laws.

Rules of Naturalization

• Extended stay/living in a country, passing a test demonstrating knowledge of the language/culture, good conduct, moral character, and taking a vow of allegiance.
• In the Philippines, the legal bases for naturalization are RA 9139, which provides for administrative naturalization, and C.A. No. 473 for judicial naturalization.
• Applicants for judicial naturalization must have lived in the Philippines for at least 10 years.