last analysis the true "community" is nothing more nor less than that
group of two or more individuals who are bound together by a single
interest. Thus two people living within sight of one another may be
members of the same religious community and at the same time be
absolutely separated from one another in their political affiliations.
Also one person can at the same time belong to many "communities."

But this definition, if adhered to strictly, would lead to confusion
of thought perhaps more serious than a less accurate use of the term.
Careful investigation of the relation of the different psychic
communities to one another reveals the fact that geographically the
areas of individual community interest overlap one another; and that
in the better organized regions the centers of interests coincide and
it is only the boundaries of the several interests that are not
coterminous. The Mifflin Center illustration given above is good in
that it had the religious, educational and political interests
centered at one physical spot. The social and recreational life of a
large part of this local area also was centered here. In the other
local groups mentioned there was a division of interest much more
marked. A more practical definition, then, of a "community" would be
"That aggregation of population which is bound together by a
predominating proportion of its local interests."

If this definition is accepted, then an inspection of almost any local
aggregation, in the open country at least, will lead to the conclusion
that there are few groups of people who have any large number of local
interests in common. Perhaps the most powerful force to be considered
in determining what is an open country community is that of the social
life. People in a given section habitually seek those with whom they
are best acquainted when they get together for social affairs of
interest outside the family circle; and it is only occasionally that
the mass will go out of these habitual associations in seeking social
relaxation. This social life may be sought at one time in the school,
at another in the church, again at a picnic, or in the home of some
one in the "neighborhood." But the dominating factor is
acquaintanceship rather than religion or education or business.

Villages are more easily defined as to the number of interests holding
the group together.

One principal objective in the modern local community organization
movement seems to