Abstract

We are constantly being told that communities are under threat, that we are losing a 'sense of community'. This book finds that the notion of community in Britain is actually threatened by the very thing intended to protect it; relentless government and third party interventions bent on imposing their own forms of social cohesion on the population.

There is no doubt that modern societies, underpinned by a ruthlessly competitive and individualistic economic system, have undermined ties of family, solidarity and commonality. However, when an idea of community is articulated it is almost invariably along conservative and reactionary lines - with unelected spokespersons unquestionably accepted as 'community leaders', and with formal contractual relationships taking the place of 'traditional' social order. The short, punchy articles in this book criticise attempts by the state and other agencies to correct the so-called collapse of communities.

This book is for students and citizens looking to get beyond the hysterical rhetoric of the government and media to find out about the real communities of the 21st century.
'This powerful book is an alternative to the tradition of swansongs to lost communities'
Professor Dennis Hayes, Oxford Brookes University, co-author of Basildon: The Mood of the Nation
'A much-needed challenge to the complacent orthodoxies currently dominating the debate. It asks all the right questions: What are communities? What's so great about them? How do they really thrive? This book will lift the communities debate to another level'
Julian Baggini, author of Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind