Communities and consumption

This paper argues that the theoretical contributions of Karl Polanyi can provide a compelling foundation for the analysis of community development (CD) processes and cases. Through a review of the international theoretical and empirical literature in CD the paper demonstrates that CD scholars work with concepts such as social solidarity, agency, self-help and mutual help, social capital, and reciprocity, that can be effectively understood in Polanyian terms. CD scholars explain the emergence of CD as a response to “modernization” where communities seek to mitigate the impacts of modernization while also taking advantage of its promises to improve communities and livelihoods. Also CD normative actions are explained in terms of building and rebuilding social capital in response to the erosion of communities caused by modern forces such as the nation state and industrial capitalism. CD scholars borrow from social analysts such as Jurgen Habermas, Paulo Freire, and Anthony Giddens to st...

Maura Harrington asked me to talk about the history of the idea of community, which is quite a big topic. What I do for a living is basically to work with activists and social movements, and from that point of view community is often very important, both as something people fight for and as something people fight with, a source of strength. In Ireland we can see this from the Whiteboys and the Land League up to the struggle here in Erris, the anti-fracking movement or the fight against water charges. Around the world community is central to indigenous struggles from the Ogoni to First Nations and Native American resistance to Keystone XL and other tar sands projects, but also to the movements of shack-dwellers in South Africa, farmers in the Narmada valley, No TAV in Italy and so on. So in this talk I will look at the difficulties involved, the history and where there might be some hope.

The Emancipatory City?: Paradoxes and Possibilities

The Emancipatory Community? place, politics and collective action in cities J a m e s D e F i l i p p i s a n d P e t e r N o r t h even in big cities people continue to act collectively at times on the basis of common territory: the people of a neighborhood resist urban renewal, white homeowners band together to resist black newcomers, disputes over the operation of schools bring geographical groupings clearly into view ... their very existence identifies the need for a better understanding of the conditions under which collective action on a territorial basis occurs. (Charles Tilly, 1974: 212) At the heart of my beliefs is the idea of community. I don't just mean the local villages, towns and cities in which we live. I mean that our fulfilment as individuals lies in a decent society of others. My argument … is that the renewal of community is the answer to the challenges of a changing world. (Tony Blair quoted in Levitas, 2000: 189) We begin with Tilly's (1974: 212) unambiguously affirmative answer to the question 'Do Communities Act?' because we believe that collective action remains a major, if sometimes dismissed or overlooked, political component of urban life in Western cities. Furthermore, we argue that it is most often in the shared territorial spaces that are constructed to be communities where the city's celebrated ability to allow for the formation of collective political identities and consciousness is realized. This is neither to assert nor deny the normative desirability of the idea and ideal of community, although these are issues we will discuss in this chapter, but rather to recognize that it is a conceptual framework that is often employed by people and organizations in urban areas. The second quotation from British Prime Minister Tony Blair highlights the parallel political reality that while the idea of community is used to mobilize people to act collectively, the ideal of community is increasingly invoked in Anglo-American politics. This is particularly true in the rhetoric and

Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research, 2018

This chapter discusses the diverse ways community has been utilized and understood, mobilized and invoked over time, with lessons for current theory and practice. In a nutshell, the history of community initiatives in the United States reveals a complex past, one which if the lens is wide angle instantly expands understanding of the varied origins, goals, politics, and shapes community efforts take. The complex history and diverse forms result from a number of factors, chief among them the historical context. Community initiatives are shaped by and constrained by the broader political-economy and at times challenge this context. This chapter proposes that this history is a contested one because community efforts are fundamentally political and part of the central social struggles and movements of their time. By offering central lessons from the history of community organizing and doing so with an eye to periodization and contextualization, this chapter contributes to a broader and eclectic understanding of community and community organizing. This chapter discusses the diverse ways community has been utilized and understood, mobilized and invoked over time, with lessons for current theory and practice. The history of community initiatives in the United States reveals a complex past, one which if the lens is wide angle instantly expands understanding of the varied goals, politics, and shapes community efforts take. The complex history and diverse forms results from a number of factors, chief among them the historical context which shapes and helps produce a dominant form of community-based effort in each era. This dominant type not only mirrors broader contemporary phenomenon but responds to and affects them as well. This chapter also proposes that this history is a contested one . It is contested because community efforts are fundamentally political and, whether groups like it or not, implicitly or explicitly, they are part of the social struggles of their historical context. Eras characterized by more liberal reform foster

Revitalising Communities in a Globalising World, 2018

Development in Practice, 2009

2013

Political Geography, 2007