Frontier, not boundary: The use of amenities around communities

Abstract

In the field of urban governance, the concept of community is often regarded as the fundamental unit for the delivery of public services. People strive to tackle diverse challenges, such as social segregation and rigid bureaucracy, through the lens of community development. Hence, a precise articulation of this concept is crucial. However, “community” can refer to either a physical area or a group of people, resulting in multiple definitions. The boundary of a community may be defined in various ways. Consequently, a paradox arises: people may enthusiastically explore the suitability of a community for providing public services, but without exactly clarifying where the discussed community itself is. This ambiguity can cause confusion in practical applications of the concept of community, resulting in a decrease in the effectiveness of community governance, the neglect of social attributes, and the undermining of public nature. This conceptual article advocates for a new approach to defining communities, one that integrates sociological components while also having a concrete spatial anchor. It proposes substituting the idea of a clear-cut “boundary” with a buffer “frontier” (or “boundary,” depending on the author’s intended meaning) as a means of demarcating the community. By comparing the conceptual characteristics of “frontier” and “boundary,” we believe that this substitution can eliminate the yes-or-no binary determination inherent in the traditional community concept. In addition, by adopting the concept of “amenity,” we aim to provide a more tangible anchor for identifying the boundaries of a community, clarifying ambiguities, and offering guidance for subsequent research operationalization.