Key Concepts in Community Studies

Concise yet critical, this is a student friendly introduction to the multi-disciplinary field of community studies.

"This book is both insightful and engaging, enriched with diverse and up-to-date readings. Tony Blackshaw lays bare debates surrounding the uses and abuses of key concepts of community studies and breathes new life into community as theory and community studies as method."
- Peter Bramham, Leeds Metropolitan University

"I would highly recommend this book to any student who is studying communities and groups in society. The book and chapters are structured in a way that students will find it easy to move from one theme to another; to dip into relevant chapters when needed; to gain a good understanding of concepts and how and why they are applied to individuals and communities. The book encompasses both breadth and depth of key concepts and issues. This book will be compulsory reading on our Community Studies degree."
- Lesley Groom, University of Bolton

This book defines the current identity of community studies, provides a critical but reliable introduction to its key concepts and is an engaging guide to the key social research methods used by community researchers and practitioners.

Concise but clear, it caters for the needs of those interested in community studies by offering cross-referenced, accessible overviews of the key theoretical issues that have the most influence on community studies today. It incorporates all of the important frames of reference including those which are:

• theoretical
• research focused
• practice and policy oriented
• political
• concerned about the place of community in everyday life.

The extensive bibliographies and up-to-date guides to further reading reinforce the aim of the book to provide an invaluable learning resource. Interdisciplinary in approach and inventive in its range of applications this book will be of value to students studying sociology, social policy, politics and community development.

Setting the Record Straight: What Is Community? And What Does It Mean Today?
Community as Theory
A Theory of Community
Hermeneutic Communities
Liquid Modern Communities
Postmodern Communities
Community as Method
Action Research
Community Profiling
Community Studies
Ethnography
Social Network Analysis
Community as Place
Cosmopolitanism, Worldliness and the Cultural Intermediaries
Liminality, Communitas and Anti-Structure
Locality, Place and Neighbourhood
Virtual Communities
Community as Identity/Belonging
Community and Identity
Imagined Communities
Neo-Tribes See Setting the Record Straight, Leisure and Its Communities, Liquid Modern Communities and Liminality, Communitas and Anti-Structure
New Social Movements See Community Action
Personal Communities See Setting the Record Straight, Social Network Analysis and Virtual Communities
The Symbolic Construction of Community
Community as Ideology
Communitarianism
Community Politics See Political Community and Community Action
Imaginary Communities
Nostalgia
The ′Dark Side′ of Community
Utopia See Imaginary Communities
Community as Policy and Practice
Community Action
Community Development
Community Partnerships
Community Policy See Political Community
Community Practice See Community Development, Community Youth Work, Leisure and Its Communities
Community Regeneration
Community Youth Work
Leisure and Its Communities
Political Community
Social Capital