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COMMUNITIES AND COMMUNITY PRACTICE
IN LOCAL TO GLOBAL CONTEXTS
Snowfl akes, leaves, humans, plants, raindrops, stars, molecules, microscopic
entities all come in communities. The singular cannot in reality exist.
PAULA GUNN ALLEN, AUTHOR OF THE SACRED HOOP AND POCAHONTAS
THE MEANING OF COMMUNITY IN THE LOCAL
TO GLOBAL CONTINUUM
The meaning of community varies with each new generation, each distinct
geographic location, and each community of interest. Scholars in the areas of
sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, philosophy, and social work have
all explored the meaning of community (Creed 2006; Martinez- Brawley 1995;
Park 1952; Stein 1960; Warren 1963, 1966). Community can evoke the image of
the traditional, bucolic village drawn from Ferdinand Tönnies’s classic work
that described small rural communities as characterized by gemeinschaft— that
is, close- knit, face- to- face relationships imbued with a sense of mutual responsi-
bility and obligation. Or community can call forth Tönnies’s contrasting im-
age, gesellschaft— that is, mechanistic relationships found in the growing indus-
trial cities and characterized by larger, impersonal networks, broader working
and exchange relationships, and weakened local ties (Tönnies, 1887/1957).
In small- scale geographic settings, bioregional location, socioeconomic as-
sets, and cultural and po liti cal currents infl uence the human relationships and
networks that give our lives meaning and purpose. These relationships and
networks can be variably supportive or oppressive, depending on how inclusive
and welcoming the accepted social, cultural, economic, and environmental
norms are toward diverse individuals and family groups. Today, both the sup-
portive and oppressive aspects of small- scale communities are inescapably af-
fected by global po liti cal and commercial activity that may be initiated in
faraway places.
In many parts of the world, elements of traditional, small- scale local com-
munities remain very much alive, and supportive social and economic networks
provide a basic community foundation. Today, however, we live in a world with
