Use of the word
community, now and in the past
he term ‘community’ relating to the study of
society presents a particular
problem for sociologists in that a unifying theory of the sociology of
community has never emerged. Bureaucracies and institutions of influence have long been aware of the value and worth that is historically attached to the word ‘community’. The aim appears to be to construct and engineer
society in a way that makes community appear natural. In this sense ‘community’ has become an adjective, outlining a social construction rather than a natural state; an abstraction intent on class control, rather than the nurturing of a naturally occurring phenomenon.