A residential community is a

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

, 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 Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

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

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

s 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

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

an or

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

setting. For that reason, they are also called dormitory towns, bedroom communities, or

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

s. 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 A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

and its residents administrated by a

subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, Ind ...

( 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Residential Community Society of the People's Republic of China Human habitats Types of communities Types of administrative division

China

History

Local government

See also

References