Why Community? Reading Difference and Singularity with Community

Abstract

Geographers have increasingly recognised that communities are not homogeneous social formations but contain great diversity and are meaningful in a variety of material, relational and political ways. This has resulted in the apparently contradictory notion of “community with difference”; that community may be performed even while heterogeneity and disagreement are present. But geographers have yet to address satisfactorily the question of why communities continue to be the subject of fascination and study when attempts at definition have proved so problematic. Following on from Young's critique of community, this paper first engages the work of Nancy and Secomb to consider Nancy's conceptualisation of ‘singularity’ as a way to explain the human construction of—and possible need for—notions of community. In short we address the why community? question. Using a rural Australian case study, we demonstrate that meanings of community reflect many differences. This case also illustrates the role of human singularity in the negotiation of these differences, defining the manner in which individual perspectives of community are articulated as well as underpinning people's responses and struggles when ideas of community are challenged.

The politics of place: Official, intermediate and community discourses in depopulated rural areas of Central Spain. The case of the Riaza river valley (Segovia, Spain)

“…In this context, the community category, as also occurs with the place category, or that of nature, are changing, as relationships are developing with a system of values that is dominant in society, but to a variable degree, and is also notably changing in relation to each social group (Daniels, 1992;O'Keeffe, 2007;Panelli and Welch, 2005;Kleese, 2002;Murdoch, 2006a). Therefore, each researcher adopts a personal approach to their studies.…”

“…In any case, it is possible to argue that a place is a specific location of confluence both of agents and of people (Panelli and Welch, 2005), but can be designed on multiple parallel planes, between which conflicting relationships can be established (which have been those most considered in the literature), but also of collaboration or coexistence. In turn, these relationships from the perspective of power structure are not fixed but are fluctuating, and even exchangeable in time.…”

Land tenure change and rural housing in Scotland

“…Panelli & Welch (2005) are also concerned with the dynamics of relations. They start from the recognition that "... community is a social construct to be variously and continuously negotiated" (p. 1589) and identify a number of themes that are important for studying these processes: the importance of context, the need to acknowledge the diversity of people, the articulation of meanings and the possibility of social relations being spatially constituted (ibid., pp.…”

How Does Street Vending Contribute to Walkability? A report on a study in Yuncheng, China

“…Street vendors are understood not only as dynamic reflections of spaces and time, but also as constitutive and performative contributors to a variety of social and environmental processes, at a variety of scales. Panelli and Welch (2005) suggest more study on 'community' in relation to space and place. That is to say, street vendors, as one 'community', do not belong to a fixed social structure that produces stable effects and conditions.…”