A Spatial Way To Study Community

Within the development of today's China community, whether the space factor still exists in the concept of community, whether the space connotation has changed in the concept of community, this subject can not be avoided, and this subject will be discussed as the dissertation's core issue. The dissertation analyses three trends: "Community Lost", "Community Saved", and "Community Virtualized", and within the three trends how the "Neighborhood" "Community Involvement" and "Community Identity" which are the three major social factors in the concept of community changed in the space dimension, and how the community power operation make the three trends take place.This dissertation is not a research about the evolution history of the community concept, but space factor, social factor and government factor in the community concept must be clearly defined. Firstly this dissertation defines the space factor in the concept of community, selecting government border as the space border; followed by, this dissertation divides the community social factors into "Neighborhood" "Community Involvement" and "Community Identity", defining "Neighborhood" as a part of individual social support network which based on a certain geographical space scope, defining "Community Involvement" as four types, measuring "Community Identity" by two methods. Finally, the dissertation describing how the community social factors reflecting on the three spatial dimension trends "Community Lost", "Community Saved", and "Community Virtualized".In the Changfeng Committee case study by survey and interviews, we find that individual social support network has spread out of the community space border both in two community types, but with a lower level in public housing community. In public housing community, the "Community Involvement" behaves as entertainment participation and induced participation, and the neighborhood committee is in the power center. In real estate community, the "Community Involvement" behaves as property right participation. Because of having rich social resources the property management company is in the community power center, and because of owning the property right the owners committee wants more and more community power, and because of the government mission and limited resources the neighborhood committee plays a coordinating role.Behind the community social factors changing in spatial dimension, we analyze the phenomenon using the social spatial methodology, discussing how the planned economic institution and market economic institution make the three spatial trends by danwei institution, currency in circulation and technology progress.