Alienation and Community

Abstract

Alienation and community are central concepts of the modern political and social sciences. Each term is laden with value implications; each is open to a confusing array of applications. Although many studies and policy papers have employed the community or the neighborhood as their focal point, no single definition of either term has won universal acceptance. Many definitions that work well in a single theoretical construct have proven difficult in practice. The neighborhood has recently been idealized in popular culture as a bygone urban Utopia, suitable for nostalgic reminiscence and panegyric, not as an arena for hardheaded political action. We have a number of useful and/or attractive definitions, none of which may be reliably employed in all circumstances. How one uses the terms obviously depends on what one wishes to do with them.