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The task of the paper is to ascertain the extent of agreement among definitions of community. Ninety-four definitions are classified by content and subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. Emphasis is placed on the number of different definitions which have been advanced rather than the frequency with which the definitions have been used. The variation is seen to be wide. Sixteen different concepts were employed by the definers, and at least two authors could always be found who have presented conflicting definitions. Most students, however, are in basic agreement that community consists of persons in social interaction within a geographic area and having one or more additional common ties. Students of the rural community whose definitions are analyzed are found to be unanimous in claiming this formulation as a minimum requisite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various issues related to welfare research. One of the biggest conceptual dilemmas in welfare research is the definitional problem. A few social scientists have stepped back from empirical data and have developed a panoramic view of the welfare system or have struggled to provide a conceptual framework for a field one might term the social science of welfare. These analysts have not been content with the everyday situation. Even among those who have made important contributions toward delineating a science of social welfare there is as yet no agreement on what should or should not be included in definitions, and by implication social science analyses, of social welfare. Despite definitional limitations, current welfare research has developed substantial information about public assistance programs and recipients. Several research papers, particularly that of economists, have zeroed in on the determinants of work-welfare choices. In spite of the growing literature on recipients little attention has been given to demographic or ecological analysis. Since public assessments have accentuated speculative propositions linking demographic change to welfare problems, it would be appropriate for more social scientists to undertake such analysis.

The article presents information about definitions of concepts of sociology. Concepts are general ideas and involve abstract thinking. Scholar K. Young states the matter thus, "abstract thinking constitutes the highest form of anticipatory response," and again, "Reasoning is a form of anticipatory response in which the behavior is foreseen in terms of images, ideas or concepts before it actually passes over into consummatory or overt conduct." Recent experimental work in psychology has reported operational definitions of the term concept and finds that children showed in comparison with adults a smaller percentage of most common and generalized concepts; a larger percentage of personal, general and loose, and incorrect concepts; and a greater percentage of childish terms and phrases. Concepts may go through such stages of development as: first, being implicit as thought; second, becoming explicit in the wide use of a term; and third, attaining precise definition of this term, either verbally, or heuristically, or operationally.