Reading :: Community

Community: Pursuing the Dream, Living the Reality
By Suzanne Keller

I picked this book up to better understand how cultural sociologists understand community, and I'm glad I did. The book starts by examining the scholarship around community, then analyzes the growth of (human) community in a planned community, Twin Rivers, NJ, over 30 years. 

Part I (the first three chapters) mainly examines the scholarship on community, and I found it to be extremely valuable, as it addresses landmark sociology on community (Tonnies, Durkheim, Weber) via a well-integrated review that helped me see the development of the concept over time. 

In Chapter 1, Keller notes that "community is a chameleon term that is used in many, often contradictory ways" (p.4), including two "prevalent perspectives": that of "an organism where the whole is more important than individual members" and the more recent "atomistic/contrarian" model in which free persons are bound together in a voluntary social contract (pp.4-5). Community is often related to the following:

• Place, turf, territory. Nearly every commentator understands community as related to "a bounded, identifiable territory" until recent discussions of "cyberspace" (p.6). 
• Shared ideals and expectations (pp.6-7)
• Network of social ties and allegiances (p.7)
• Collective framework (p.7)

In contrast, community is not interpersonal intimacy, formal organization membership, group affiliation based on identity, or communitarianism, which emphasizes "a set of moral and philosophical principles" (pp.7-8). 

Keller asks: "How can self be linked to community and how can community be linked to society?" (p.9). This question animates the study in Part II -- but before we get there, we will examine each term.

Society "might be thought of as an overarching system of social, political, and cultural arrangements that encompass the totality. Its practices are formalized and abstract; its scale is superpersonal" (p.11). In contrast, community "is tangible, proximate, based on direct contact, mutual awareness, and a sense of empathy with those with whom one shares one's life in a definite place. In community, self and terrain are intertwined" (p.11). Community has been addressed by Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, de Toqueville, Marx, and Tonnies, and central questions of community are:

• "How are communities created and maintained over time?"
• "How is a 'spirit of community' generated?"
• "How are human differences bridged for the sake of the common good?" (p.13)

In Chapter 2, Keller discusses four prototypes of community: the Greek polis, the monastic community, the Puritan commonwealth, and 19th-century utopian communities. The tensions among these prototypes are behind the confusion in discussions of community today, since the same term is applied to different conceptions (p.39). In Chapter 3, Keller then turns to sociological work on community, starting with Tonnies' 1887 Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (founded in Hobbes; p.41). Durkheim produced a counterproposal, his division between mechanical and organic solidarity, which are fundamentally different from Tonnies' categories (p.43). (Weber also builds on Tonnies; p.44). Tonnies understood Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft as ideal types, but also as historical trends and types of social relations— a fact that introduced some confusion (p.44). Modern societies embrace both types of relations (p.46). 

With this background, we get to Part II: The case of Twin Rivers. Keller argues that leaders played a crucial role in guiding collectivity and creating schemes of behavior (p.202). Initially, leaders were hard to attract, but after three decades, leadership positions became competitive (p.203). Interestingly, Keller found that leaders worked for the community due to different motivations, from ego to power to the challenge of making a difference (p.208). However, almost all leaders cited the principle of giving back to the community, something that was instilled by their families (p.208). 

Based on this study, Keller outlines ten "standard dimensions that form the bedrock of community" (p.266):

1. "A bounded site of territory or turf"
2. "Criteria of membership"
3. "An institutional framework of laws and rules"
4. "A set of values emphasizing cooperation, mutual responsibility, and sharing"
5. "A belief system that validates a particular way of life"
6. "A myth of community embodied in images, ideals, aspirations, and goals"
7. "Shared rituals and celebrations"
8. "Leadership structure"
9. "Social relationships that are personal, direct, responsive, and trusting"
10. "Transcendent purposes and goals" (pp.266-267)

Importantly, and related to #2, "collective identity rests on social exclusion to some degree," with outgroups defining the ingroup. In Twin Rivers, the outgroup was a nearby community that they contrasted with themselves (p.286). 

I've only given an outline of parts of the book that particularly interested me. But if you're interested in community—what it is, how it's defined, how it forms and develops—definitely pick up this book.