Residential community

A residential community is a community, usually a small town or city, that is composed mostly of residents, as opposed to commercial businesses 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 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 a 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, Tianjin, China.

China[edit]

In the People's Republic of China, a residential community (simplified Chinese: 社区; traditional Chinese: 社區; pinyin: shèqū),^[1]^[2] also called residential unit or residential quarter (simplified Chinese: 小区; traditional Chinese: 小區; pinyin: xiǎoqū) or neighbourhood (simplified Chinese: 居民区; traditional Chinese: 居民區; pinyin: jūmínqū) or residential community (simplified Chinese: 居住区; traditional Chinese: 居住區; pinyin: jūzhùqū), is an urban residential area and its residents administrated by a subdistrict (simplified Chinese: 街道办事处; traditional Chinese: 街道辦事處; pinyin: jiēdàobànshìchù). Every community has a community committee, neighborhood committee or residents' committee (simplified Chinese: 社区居民委员会; traditional Chinese: 社區居民委員會; pinyin: shèqūjūmínwěiyuánhuì) and every committee administers the dwellers living in that community.

Shequ (Chinese: 社区) are community institutions, consisting of participating citizens and chiefs, the latter ones being installed by the central governance. Shequ represent an attempt to restructure the relationship between state and urban community in China.^[3]

The social anthropologist Fei Xiaotong is considered the first to have proposed the introduction of the idea of shequ in China.^[4] 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.

References[edit]

^ 现代汉语词典(第七版). [A Dictionary of Current Chinese (Seventh Edition).]. Beijing: The Commercial Press. 1 September 2016. p. 1155. ISBN 978-7-100-12450-8. 【社区】 shèqū 名{...}2我国城镇按地理位置划分的居民区
^ 现代汉语规范词典(第3版). [Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian]. Beijing: 外语教学与研究出版社. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. May 2014. p. 1162. ISBN 978-7-513-54562-4. 【社区】 shèqū 名{...}在我国特指城市街道办事处或居民委员会活动范围内的地区。
^ Heberer, Thomas/Schubert,Gunter: Politische Partizipation und Regimelegitimität in China. Band I: Der Urbane Raum, Wiesbaden: VSVerlag 2008, pp 15-24,47-70,189-203.
^ Heberer, Thomas/Derichs, Claudia: Einführung in die politischen Systeme Ostasiens. VR China, Hongkong, Japana, Nordkorea, Südkorea, Taiwan (2): VSVerlag 2008, pp119-144.