political life, such that they can account for the complexity of the human and may establish relations that make a peaceful life together possible. To do so, I will rely on Martin Buber's reflections on the nature and requisites of a community. It can be
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Buber's Idea of Community
Towards a Foundation of Political Life
Federico Filauri
In European Judaism
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2024
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 39–52 (14 total)
City, Community, Nation, State
Participation and Spectacle
Judith Kapferer
The events and sites of a national holiday (17 May in Bergen, Norway) are the grounds from which to draw out meanings of nationalism and tradition, and analyze ideologies of egalitarianism and individualism in a social democratic welfare state. My project has two aims: to open up and deconstruct aspects of the material and symbolic life of the city, and to engage an examination of patterns of local and national community life in relation to shifting evaluations of localism and nationalism within the a changing state formation. Bergen can be thought of as a case study of social order and control, with women, children, and reverence for home life, highlighted in the town’s celebrations. The symbolism of the day discovers community and state in a difficult relation between domestic communities and nationalist ideology in the maintenance of governmentality, a relation mediated by the city itself.
In Social Analysis
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2004
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 108–125 (18 total)
Discourses, Bodies, and Questions of Sharedness in Kenya's Wellness Communities
Sarah M. Hillewaert
“They are just naturally like that, you know? If you don't have anything, you don't need to learn about detachment.” Jake sipped his foamy cappuccino before elaborating on the success of the community yoga project he had launched in a small
In Religion and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2021
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 163–177 (15 total)
Which community for cooperatives?
Peasant mobilizations, the Mafia, and the problem of community participation in Sicilian co-ops
Theodoros Rakopoulos
The literature on cooperatives often conceptualizes cooperativism as an organized effort to embrace community participation. Through the analysis of agrarian cooperatives in Sicily that were formally established to counter the Mafia and by ethnographically exploring the notion of community for cooperativism, this article aims to problematize this idea of cooperatives as “community economics”. It proposes an anthropological approach that critically analyzes divisions of labor and the internal factions' divergent concepts of “community”. In Sicily, workers in “anti-Mafia” co-ops recognize a sense of community and “way of life” in Mafia-influenced mobilizations outside the cooperative environment, contrary to the co-op administrators' legalistic views of community. The article illuminates how the fact that often co-op members draw on different ideas of community can lead to contradictions and tensions, especially as there are different social realities underlying those ideas.
Competition and community in Edinburgh
Contradictions in neoliberal urban development
Christa Ballard Tooley
Cities have long been recognised as key spaces for neoliberal interventions. Identified by municipal leaders as instruments in competition for internationally mobile labour and capital, cities like Edinburgh, Scotland, have increasingly been shaped by urban development practices justified by the exigencies of competition. Any project to centralise urban development processes, however, must navigate the potential obstacles to efficiency found in the discipline of urban planning, which privileges community involvement in such processes. This article explores the tension between the values of community and efficiency in urban development, showing how, in the case of a proposal for development named Caltongate, the role of a community in the planning process was disputed, precisely because of its potential, qua community, to levy moralised claims to representation. I suggest that this case is not exceptional. Rather, it illustrates a characteristic contradiction of community as a politicised identity in neoliberal urban development: it is elevated in (often moralised) rhetoric but in practice is subordinated to the objective of efficiency in the delivery of centrally determined development outcomes.
In Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
- Published (Print):
- 01 Aug 2017
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 380–395 (15 total)
Rationality and Community in an Audit Society
Tian Sørhaug
This is a theoretical paper focusing on the mutual interdependence between formal and informal processes in the interface between state apparatus and community in modern capitalistic and democratic societies. Simple and direct hierarchical control is no longer feasible or efficient. This problem is apparently solved by introducing complex and detailed audit systems. The correct way of reporting can become more important than the correct execution of tasks threatening established informal relations of personal judgement and trust. Value rationality can be stifled by instrumental procedures and values and in the end the universal value basis of a welfare society may be weakened.
In Ethnologia Europaea
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2009
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 61–65 (4 total)
Sense of Community
Bo Rothstein, Helena Olofsdotter Stensöta, Isabell Schierenbeck, Jonas Frykman, Kjell Hansen, and Mia-Marie Hammarlin
Community-studies have a long tradition within European Ethnology. Almost without exception they have been neglecting the strong presence of public institutions of the welfare state – despite the fact that various social security and insurance systems are such an important factor in local life. These are the offices people turn to when they are ill, require unemployment benefits, social assistance, and early retirement or disability pensions. They often provide the foundations for people to make a go of things where they live. Local communities on the other hand are not passively receiving support, but in a most intricate practice defining the actual outcome of the workings of the institutions. In this essay remuneration for illness in contemporary Sweden is used as an instrument for putting local culture in a new light. In a joint effort the macro-perspectives of political science is combined with the detailed cultural analysis of ethnology.1 Especially the emotional aspects of community-building are brought out.
In Ethnologia Europaea
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2009
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 7–46 (39 total)
Egalitarianism and Community in danish housing Cooperatives
Proper Forms of Sharing and Being Together
Maja Hojer Bruun
The Danish concept of faellesskab (community) is explored in this article. Faellesskab covers different kinds of belonging and notions of proper togetherness in Danish society, ranging from neighborhood relations at the local level to membership in society at the national level. In investigating the ideals and practices of faellesskab in housing cooperatives, the article shows how people establish connections between these different scales of sociality. It argues that the way people live together in housing cooperatives, in a close atmosphere of egalitarian togetherness, is a cultural ideal in modern Denmark. The more recent commercialization of cooperative property has, however, caused concern. While some believe that faellesskab can still be practiced in the small enclaves of autonomous cooperatives, others fear that this ideal is threatened by economic inequalities.
“Because we are the only ones in the community!”
Protest and daily life in poor South African neighborhoods
Jérôme Tournadre
camp, or a neighborhood. These affiliates are similar to groups of people formed around a few very committed activists with a high degree of visibility in the community. Here we find a type of structure quite familiar to the women and men living in
Youth, community life and well-being in rural areas of Siberia
Anthony Glendinning, Ol'ga Pak, and Iurii V. Popkov
The study looks at young people's situations in small communities in Siberia against a backdrop of socioeconomic and rural-urban divides in post-Soviet Russia. Focusing on the end of compulsory schooling, the study looks at the fit between young people's accounts of their circumstances, aspirations for the future and feelings about themselves, as well as implications for mental well-being. A mixed-methods approach is adopted, including preliminary fieldwork, a large-scale survey (n approximately 700) and in-depth interviews (n approximately 90). Situations and well-being in rural areas and small towns in Novosibirskaia oblast' are compared with life in the city of Novosibirsk. There is stark segmentation by locality. In small communities, the household 'copes' along with the young person in shared goals and understandings and in aspiring to get 'an education' as a means to secure employment and a 'comfortable' life beyond subsistence. Most households locally share the same situations. Almost all imagine continuing their education and leaving their home communities, dependent on family resources and networks. Horizons are limited to towns in the region, or perhaps the city, seen as a place of possibilities but also risks. Beyond the rural household, the collectivity of peers represents another key resource in negotiating and maintaining self-worth. Neither individualism nor the reach of 'global' culture is evident. Young people are embedded in the 'local', but despite their situations and poor prospects, these do not affect their sense of themselves. If anything, profiles of mental well-being and, certainly, self-worth are better in rural communities compared to the city.