Community thinking is a social endeavour that considers the good of the community a priority, sometimes at the cost of the individual’s interest. Instead of granting privileges to certain individuals, it attempts to look for solutions and actions that meet everyone’s demands, treating the good of the community as a long-term project stabilizing common good. 

Community thinking means to take care of each other, to do what is good for others, too, not only for one person. This however is not to be confused with charity, to the contrary, community thinking can be a win-win situation for all parties, for example exchanging services between community members – be it walking someone else’s dog, or repairing the zipper on someone’s jacket etc.    

Community gardens are good examples of community activities undertaken in cities. Another good initiative might be by local governments, to plant herbs and fruit trees in public spaces instead of flowers, so that the poorer are able to use and eat them.  

On the level of decision making there are more and more human rights movements that follow a policy of letting the community make the decisions instead of delegating it to leaders. Similarly, in many cities and local communities around the world, decisions concerning for instance the annual budget are discussed openly, so that the inhabitants can decide together with the local government how to spend the funds. This decentralization, the shift in decision making policy is yet another sign of the growing importance of local communities nowadays.