community:

... a socioeconomic group; a group held together by a commonality or socioeconomic existence; an assemblage of stakeholders in something such as having a common interest or being in a place where they interact and share. Likewise, a grouping made possible by recognition of a distinct commonality, for example, the business community.

People in a community may be on different socioeconomic levels. People on the same socioeconomic level may be identified as a community although they are scattered over a wide area. For example a community of street people or the homeless exists.

Communities are places where people live, work, and share things in common. A community of people typically exists as a grouping within a a local area economy. As such it is the smallest demographically identifiable unit, other than family or individual household. It occupies space in a location, often without actually having an official boundary.

Sustainable communities are places of vitality presently meeting the needs of those who reside there and having all indications that it can remain as such for those who will live, work, and share things in common there in the future. Sustainability doesn't imply growth potential.

This definition of community is tied to the concept that enterprise development leads to economic development throughout the world. See a definition of community based economic development or page down to search for more about communities.

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What is community based economic development?

Community based economic development is an expression that ties the process to ... places where people live, work, and share things in common (source of quote).

Places seeking economic development typically set objectives for ... the creation of jobs and wealth, and the improvement of quality of life. Economic development can also be described as a process that influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance the economic well being of a community (source of quote).

Based on the above description of economic development and our (who we are) review of many others, community well being becomes identifiable as an operative phrase -- community an operative word. Another source providing a definition of economic development and its relationship to community is an article titled Some Terminology and Definitions in the Field of Community Economic Development by Stewart Perry.

Perry zeros in on the answer to the question by stating that community economic development ... sometimes called "community-based economic development" and abbreviated as CED, specifies the geographic target of economic development activities as a rather limited locality (source of quote) Elsewhere, Perry defines community economic development as ... a comprehensive, wide-ranging program of activities for the overall improvement of the locality as a place to live and work. Because it is comprehensive in approach, it can include virtually any activity that might be seen locally as community improvement ... (source of quote)

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