A residential community is a
community, usually a small town or
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
, that is composed mostly of
residents, as opposed to
commercial business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...
es and/or
industrial facilities, all three of which are considered to be the three main types of occupants of the typical community.
Residential communities are typically communities that help support more commercial or industrial communities with
consumers and
workers. That
phenomenon
A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...
is probably because some people prefer not to live in an
urban or industrial area, but rather a
suburban or
rural setting. For that reason, they are also called
dormitory towns,
bedroom communities, or
commuter towns.
An example of residential community would include a small town or city outside a larger city or a large town located near a smaller but more commercially- or industrially-centered town or city, for instance
Taitou in Gaocun, Wuqing, and Tianjin, China.
China
In the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, a community ( zh, s=社区, labels=no), also called residential unit or residential quarter ( zh , s=小区, labels=no) or
neighbourhood
A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...
( zh , s=居民区, labels=no) or residential community ( zh , s=居住区, labels=no), is an urban
residential area and its residents administrated by a
subdistrict ( zh , s=街道办事处, labels=no). Communities are generally organized around a territory consisting of 100 to 700 households.
History
The reform that created residential communities as local government in their current form was called ''shèqū'' (社区). Originally, these organizations consisted of participating citizens and chiefs, the latter ones being installed by the central governance. Shequ represented an attempt to restructure the relationship between state and urban community in China.
The
social anthropologist Fei Xiaotong is considered the first to have proposed the introduction of the idea of shequ in China.
[Heberer, Thomas/Derichs, Claudia: Einführung in die politischen Systeme Ostasiens. VR China, Hongkong, Japana, Nordkorea, Südkorea, Taiwan (2): VSVerlag 2008, pp119-144.] The introduction of shequ started after the collapse of the previously existing social institutions (''
danwei'') during the mid-1990s. Shequ were supposed to relieve the state of certain duties and responsibilities by transferring them to citizens participating in the shequ. They take over responsibilities which in democratic states are assumed by organisations of the civil community.
Local government
Each community has a community committee, neighborhood committee or
residents' committee
The residents' committee (), shortened as ''juweihui'' or ''juwei'' in Chinese, also translated as neighborhood committee, residents' association, residential committee, is a grassroots mass autonomous organization for self-management, self ...
( zh, s=社区居民委员会, labels=no). The creation, adjustment or dissolution of a community committee is decided by the subdistrict government.
A community committee is directly elected and consists of 5 to 9 members; it is responsible to the residents assembly, which consists of all residents in the community who are at or above the age of 18.
See also
*
Administrative divisions of China
*
Age-restricted community
*
Xiaoqu
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Residential Community
Society of the People's Republic of China
Human habitats
Types of communities
Types of administrative division