For me, a community is any group of people who are linked because they have things in common and therefore common interests. For example, the community of Dudley are a community because they all have connections with Dudley; the Buddhist community are a community because collectively they are all Buddhist and the Fishing community because collectively they all actively enjoying fishing.

Hope that helps!

The community I am involved in is that of older people who live and work in Dudley but I feel everyone who lives in Dudley is the community but we dont seem to havea Dudley identity

I believe there are three definitions and each can be consider as an approach to the meaning. Firstly there is community with reference to place where people have things in common and this shared understanding is based on locality.
Secondly there are community of interest where people share common characteristics other than place for example religous belief "the catholic comunity" or sexual oreientation "the gay community" or work related community of practice. Thirdly there is a sense of attachment to a place or group or even an idea that suggests there is a "spirit of the community or community spirit"

Community means just that--the area, the people, the facilities, their participation, contact and communication--no matter colour or creed, the main problem with some communities is irrespective how much is there for them--they can't be bothered!!

I agree with some parts of all the above comments, and I also think of community as being observant,getting to know people and whats happening in the surrounding area, community spirit as in no3

I have discussed this in great depth and even written papers on the topic. After fairly extensive reading the following seems to be a fair summary. The word 'community' can be all things to all men. A community is as large or as small as you wish and can be based around area, religion, nationality, sexual preference, interests, etc. etc. etc. A biologist will talk about a community of animals or plants and this can be as small as those living under a single stone or growing on a rock! What emerges is that there are as many definitions of the word as there are those who wish to define it. What seems of vital importance is to establish at the start of any dicussion or activity exactly what community is under consideration. This done, all involved can move forward together. Community can have positive or negative connatations depending on the circumstances and is perhaps an over used word but whatever else, needs clarification in each and every circumstance.