Abstract
Community is one of British sociology’s most enduring concepts and fields of study. Its history has been an uneven one, with periods of both vibrancy and dormancy. At one particularly low point Philip Abrams perceived that the concept of community was ‘slowly being evicted from British sociology’ (1978, p. 13). He was in a good position to judge, from his vantage point as editor of the British Sociological Association’s journal Sociology as well being as an established researcher in the field of community himself. His diagnosis of the travails of the field revolved around what he called the ‘paradox of the sociology of community’, namely ‘the coexistence of a body of theory which constantly predicts the collapse of community and a body of empirical studies which finds community alive and well’ (1978, p. 12). There was nothing uniquely British about this paradox, although Abrams’s (1968, 1981, 1985) knowledge of the history of British sociology gave him a sense of perspective of how this paradoxical situation had evolved in the British context. He was also well-placed to reflect on why in this context the concept of community that Robert Nisbet identified as ‘the most fundamental and far-reay’s unit-ideas’ (1970, p. 47) was so contested but also so resilient.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Abrams, P. (1968) The Origins of British Sociology1834–1914. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Abrams, P. (1978) ‘Introduction: Social Facts and Sociological Analysis’, in P. Abrams (ed.), Work, Urbanism and Inequality: UK Society Today. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, pp. 1–16.
Abrams, P. (1981) ‘The Collapse of British Sociology?’, in P. Abrams, R. Deem, J. Finch and P. Rock (eds,) Practice and Progress: British Sociology 1950–1980. London: George Allen and Unwin, pp. 53–70.
Abrams, P. (1985) ‘The Uses of British sociology, 1831–1981’, in M. Bulmer (ed.), Essays on the History of British Sociological Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 181–205.
Abrams, P. and McCulloch, A. (1976) Communes, Sociology and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Arensberg, C. and Kimball, S. (1968) Family and Community in Ireland, 2nd edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bauman, Z. (2001) Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World. Cambridge: Polity.
Bell, C. (1977) ‘Reflections on the Banbury Restudy’, in C. Bell and H. Newby (eds), Doing Sociological Research. London: George Allen and Unwin, pp. 47–62.
Bell, C. and Newby, H. (1971) Community Studies: An Introduction to the Study of the Local Community. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Bell, C. and Newby, H. (1977) ‘Introduction: The Rise of Methodological Pluralism’, in C. Bell and H. Newby (eds), Doing Sociological Research. London: George Allen and Unwin, pp. 9–29.
Birch, A.H. (1959) Small-Town Politics: A Study of Political Life in Glossop. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Booth, C. (1976) ‘Charles Booth’, in P. Keating (ed.), Into Unknown England 1866–1913: Selections from the Social Explorers. Glasgow: Fontana, pp. 112–40.
Booth, W. (1976) ‘William Booth’, in P. Keating (ed.), Into Unknown England 1866–1913: Selections from the Social Explorers. Glasgow: Fontana, pp. 141–73.
Branford, V. (1928) ‘The Past, Present and Future’, Sociological Review 20: 322–39.
Brennan, T.; Cooney, E. and Pollins, H. (1954) Social Change in South-West Wales. London: Watts and Co.
Brunt, L. (2001) ‘Into the Community’, in P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland and L. Lofland (eds), Handbook of Ethnography. London: Sage, pp. 80–91.
Bulmer, M. (1985a) ‘The Rejuvenation of Community Studies? Neighbours, Networks and Policy’, Sociological Review 33: 430–48.
Bulmer, M. (1985b) ‘The Development of Sociology and of Empirical Social Research in Britain’, in M. Bulmer (ed.), Essays on the History of British Sociological Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 3–36.
Bulmer, M. (1986) Neighbours: The Work of Philip Abrams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Butler, T. with Robson, G. (2003) London Calling: The Middle Classes and the Re-Making of Inner London. Oxford: Berg.
Calder, A. (1985) ‘Mass-Observation 1937–1949’, in M. Bulmer (ed.), Essays on the History of British Sociological Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 121–36.
Calder, A. (1986) ‘Introduction’, in T. Harrisson and C. Madge (eds), Britain by Mass-Observation. London: The Cresset Library, pp. vii—xv.
Charles, N.; Davies, C. and Harris, C. (2008) Families in Transition: Social Change, Family Formation and Kin Relationships. Bristol: Policy Press.
Coates, K. and Silburn, R. (1970) Poverty: The Forgotten Englishmen. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Cooke, P. (ed.) (1989) Localities: The Changing Face of Urban Britain. London: Unw in Hyman.
Cornwell, J. (1984) Hard-Earned Lives: Accounts of Health and Illness from East London. London: Tavistock.
Crow, G. (2002) ‘Community Studies: Fifty Years of Theorization’, Sociological Research Online 7(3), www.socresonline.org.uk/7/3/crow.html.
Crow, G. (2008) ‘Recent Rural Community Studies’, International Journal of Social Research Methodology 11(2): 131–9.
Crow, G. and Allan, G. (1994) Community Life: An Introduction to Local Social Relations. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Day, G. (2006) Community and Everyday Life. London: Routledge.
Day, G. and Murdoch, J. (1993) ‘Locality and Community: Coming to Terms with Place’, Sociological Review 41(1): 82–111.
Dench, G.; Gavron, K. and Young, M. (2006) The New East End: Kinship, Race and Conflict. London: Profile Books.
Dennis, N.; Henriques, F. and Slaughter, C. (1969) Coal Is Our Life: An Analysis of a Yorkshire Mining Community. London: Tavistock.
Eldridge, J. (1980) Recent British Sociology. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Elias, N. (1974) ‘Foreword: Towards a Theory of Communities’, in C. Bell and H. Newby (eds), The Sociology of Community. London: Frank Cass, pp. ix–xli.
Elias, N. and Scotson, J. (1994) The Established and the Outsiders, 2nd edition. London: Sage.
Engels, F. (1969) The Condition of the Working Class in England: From Personal Observation and Authentic Sources. Frogmore: Granada.
Foster, J. (1999) Docklands: Cultures in Conflict, Worlds in Collision. London: UCL Press.
Frankenberg, R. (1969) Communities in Britain: Social Life in Town and Country. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Frankenberg, R. (1990) Village on the Border: A Social Study of Religion, Politics and Football in a North Wales Community. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Gallie, D.; Marsh, C. and Vogler, C. (eds) (1993) Social Change and the Experience of Unemployment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gavron, K. and Mulgan, G. (2007) ‘Introduction to the 2007 Edition’, in M. Young and P. Willmott, Family and Kinship in East London. Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. vii—xii.
Glass, R. (1968) ‘Urban Sociology in Great Britain’, in R.E. Pahl (ed.), Readings in Urban Sociology. Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 47–73.
Halsey, A.H. (2004) A History of Sociology in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Harris, C.C. (1987) Redundancy and Recession in South Wales. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Harris, C.C. (ed.) (1990) Family, Economy and Community. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Harrisson, T. (1987) ‘Industrial Survey’, in Mass-Observation, War Factory. London: The Cresset Library, pp. 5–11.
Hunt, T. (2009) Marx’s General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Jackson, A. (ed.) (1987) Anthropology at Home. London: Tavistock.
Jenkins, D.; Jones, E.; Jones Hughes, T. and Owen, T. (eds) (1960) Welsh Rural Communities. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Kent, R. (1981) A History of British Empirical Sociology. Aldershot: Gower.
Lassiter, L.E. (2012) “’To Fill in the Missing Piece of the Middletown Puzzle”: Lessons from Re-Studying Middletown’, Sociological Review 60(3): 421–37.
Lee, D. and Newby, H. (1983) The Problem of Sociology. London: Hutchinson.
Lemert, C. (ed.) (1999) Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings, 2nd edition Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Littlejohn, J. (1963) Westrigg: The Sociology of a Cheviot Parish. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Lummis, T. (1985) Occupation and Society: The East Anglian Fishermen1880–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lynd, R. and Lynd, H. (1929) Middletown. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Lynd, R. and Lynd, H. (1937) Middletown in Transition. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Maclver, R.M. (1970) Community: A Sociological Study. Being an Attempt to Set out the Nature and Fundamental Laws of Social Life, 4th edition. London: Frank Cass.
Mckenzie, L. (2012) ‘A Narrative from the Inside, Studying St Anns in Nottingham: Belonging, Continuity and Change’, Sociological Review 60(3): 457–75.
Madge, J. (1970) The Origins of Scientific Sociology. London: Tavistock.
Mah, A. and Crow, G. (2011) Researching Community in the 21st Century: An Annotated Bibliography, www.community-methods.soton.ac.uk/.
Marshall, T.H. (1963) Sociology at the Crossroads and Other Essays. London: Heinemann.
Martin, E.W. (1965) The Shearers and the Shorn: A Study of Life in a Devon Community. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Mills, C.W. (1959) The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Moore, R. (1982) The Social Impact of Oil: The Case of Peterhead. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Newby, H. (1977) The Deferential Worker. London: Allen Lane.
Newby, H.; Bell, C.; Rose, D. and Saunders, P. (1978) Property, Paternalism and Power: Class and Control in Rural England. London: Hutchinson.
Nisbet, R. (1970) The Sociological Tradition. London: Heinemann.
O’Connor, H. and Goodwin, J. (2012) ‘Re-Visiting Norbert Elias’ Sociology of Community: Learning from the Leicester Re-Studies’, Sociological Review 60(3): 476–97.
Okely, J. (1983) The Traveller-Gypsies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O’Reilly, K. (2000) The British on the Costa del Sol: Transnational Identities and Local Communities. London: Routledge.
Pahl, R.E. (1965) Urbs in Rure: The Metropolitan Fringe in Hertfordshire. London: LSE.
Pahl, R.E. (1968) ‘The Rural-Urban Continuum’, in R.E. Pahl (ed.), Readings in Urban Sociology. Oxford: Pergamon, pp. 263–97.
Pahl, R.E. (1984) Divisions of Labour. Oxford: Blackwell.
Park, R.E. (1952) Human Communities: The City and Human Ecology. New York: Free Press.
Payne, G. (1996) ‘Imagining the Community: Some Reflections on the Community Study as a Method’, in E.S. Lyon and J. Busfield (eds), Methodological Imaginations. Basingstoke: Macmillan, pp. 17–33.
Phillipson, C.; Bernard, M.; Phillips, J. and Ogg, G. (2001) The Family and Community Life of Older People: Social Networks and Social Support in Three Urban Areas. London: Routledge.
Platt, J. (1971) Social Research in Bethnal Green: An Evaluation of the Work of the Institute of Community Studies. London: Macmillan.
Platt, J. (2003) The British Sociological Association: A Sociological History. Durham: Sociologypress.
Pryce, K. (1979) Endless Pressure: A Study of Westlndian Life-Styles in Bristol. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Rees, A. (1950) Life in a Welsh Countryside: A Social Study of Llanfihangel yng Ngwynfa. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Rex, J. and Moore, R. (1967) Race, Community and Conflict: A Study of Sparkbrook. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rodinson, M. (1977) Islam and Capitalism. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Rosser, C. and Harris, C. (1965) The Family and Social Change: A Study of Family and Kinship in a South Wales Town. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Saunders, P. (1979) Urban Politics: A Sociological Interpretation. London: Hutchinson.
Savage, M. (2010) Identities and Social Change in Britain since 1940: The Politics of Method. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Savage, M.; Bagnall, G. and Longhurst, B. (2005) Globalization and Belonging. London: Sage.
Savage, M. and Warde, A. (1993) Urban Sociology, Capitalism and Modernity. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Scott, J. (2011) ConceptualisingtheSocial World: Principles of Sociological Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, D. (1988) The Chicago School: A Liberal Critique of Capitalism. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Stacey, M. (1960) Tradition and Change: A Study of Banbury. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stacey, M. (1969) ‘The Myth of Community Studies’, British Journal of Sociology 20(2): 134–47.
Stacey, M.; Batstone, E.; Bell, C. and Murcott, A. (1975) Power, Persistence and Change: A Second Study of Banbury. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Stanley. L. (2001) ‘Mass-Obserrvation’s Fieldwork Methods’, in P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland and L. Lofland (eds), Handbook of Ethnography. London: Sage, pp. 92–108.
Tönnies, F. (1955) Community and Association. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Waddington, D.; Wykes, M. and Critcher, C. (1991) Split at the Seams? Community, Continuity and Change after the 1984–5 Coal Dispute. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Warwick, D. and Littlejohn, G. (1992) Coal, Capital and Culture: A Sociological Analysis of Mining Communities in West Yorkshire. London: Routledge.
Williams, W.M. (1956) The Sociology of an English Village: Gosforth. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Williams, W.M. (1963) A West Country Village: Ashworthy: Family, Kinship and Land. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Willmott, P. (1989) Community Initiatives: Patterns and Prospects. London: Policy Studies Institute.
Wirth, L. (1938) ‘Urbanism as a Way of Life’, American Journal of Sociology 44(1): 1–24.
Young, M. and Willmott, P. (1957) Family and Kinship in East London. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Graham Crow
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Crow, G. (2014). The Sociology of Community. In: Holmwood, J., Scott, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318862_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318862_17
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33548-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-31886-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)