Abstract
Contemporary theory on community suggests that disagreement or conflict over foundational beliefs and values greatly decreases the chance that a successful, sustainable community experience will develop. My findings suggest, however, that feelings of community can develop despite incongruous ideologies through the perception of shared beliefs and values. Using an ethnographic case of a voluntary non-profit organization, I demonstrate how three types of mechanisms operate jointly to maintain a community without shared beliefs: environmental mechanisms related to the division of labor, relational mechanisms associated with selective recruitment and homophily, and a cognitive mechanism that produces the feeling of consensus in the absence of objectively shared beliefs. These mechanisms combine to allow a powerful experience of community to flourish in a context where we might expect, based on previous research, no community experience at all. Implications for the study of community, sociology of organizations, and social psychology are discussed.
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Notes
Brint (2001) describes the eight variables or properties of community relations, identified by sociologists, as 1) dense and demanding social ties; 2) social attachments to and involvements in institutions; 3) ritual occasions, and 4) small group size; 5) perceptions of similarity with the physical characteristics, expressive style, way of life, or historical experience of others; and 6) common beliefs in an idea system, a moral order, an institution, or a group.
Blee (2012) makes the distinction between those who “belong,” meaning individuals who fit the identity of the group, from “members,” as not all who “belong” are also necessarily “members.” The criteria for both belonging and membership are defined by those involved in the organization or group.
Prosumption is the process of both production and consumption, where the consumers are the producers.
A number of working definitions of intersubjectivity exist. The term is used here to communicate a mutual awareness of agreement (or disagreement).
A number of conceptualizations of “social mechanisms” have developed over time. Tilly’s understanding is distinct in its emphasis on the linking of mechanisms into social processes, as well as its attentiveness to the embedded nature of mechanisms and processes. For a comprehensive review of different conceptualizations of social mechanisms, see Hedstrom and Ylikoski (2010). Neil Gross (2009) also offers a cogent review.
Not all organizations provide or enable an experience of community, and not all experiences of community occur within organizations. For example, Pole and Gray (2012) find that many members of CSA organizations do not experience community as a result of membership, nor was achieving a sense of community a reason for joining. In contrast, residents of Buffalo Creek (Erikson 1979) lived in a state of “communality” that meets the conditions for community experience outlined at the start of this paper but are not part of any organization, formal or otherwise.
Katz (2001) argues that while the term analytic induction is commonly used, what researchers who follow this method are actually doing is retroduction, or a “double fitting” process where the observation and explanation shape each other. For this reason, Katz recommends using the term analytic research rather than analytic induction.
The content of the email was similar but not identical to an email linking unsubstantiated scientific claims to Johns Hopkins University, which has been in circulation since approximately 2007. http,//www.snopes.com/medical/disease/cancerupdate.asp (accessed February 4, 2013)
The Gerson Therapy is a natural treatment used for a number of illnesses including cancer. Solid foods, including organic yogurt, are permissible while following the Gerson Therapy. For more information, see www.gerson.org
Campbell, Thom M. 2004. The China Study. Dallas: BenBella Books
In her work on social movement groups, Blee (2012) notes that not all who belong are members. She finds that when persons involved with an activist group disagree with the group’s definition of “who we are” and “what we’re doing here”—essentially, who belongs—and display this divergence in action or through word, those who do belong (according to the present agreed upon criteria) may respond negatively, or simply ignore the individual, creating opportunity for tension and conflict to arise.
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Pirkey, M.F. People Like Me: Shared Belief, False Consensus, and the Experience of Community. Qual Sociol 38, 139–164 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-015-9303-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-015-9303-6