Community's thus with other people around group of islands (8)
I believe the answer is:
societal
'community's' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'thus with other people around group of islands' is the wordplay.
'thus' becomes 'so' (synonyms).
'with other people' becomes 'et al' (short for 'et alia', 'and others' in Latin).
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'group of islands' becomes 'CI' (abbreviation for Channel Islands).
'so'+'etal'='soetal'
'soetal' going around 'ci' is 'SOCIETAL'.
(Another definition for societal that I've seen is " of a community".)