‘Community’, ‘Conflict’ and the State – the Historical Field

Abstract

CommunCommunity is a vague and contested concept. For some it has no meaning at all whilst for others it describes a self-contained collection of people living in the same neighbourhood and sharing a sense of belonging. Throughout modernity, community has often been used to describe collections of ‘dangerous’ people living in ‘dangerous’ places who are a threat to the ‘natural’ order. Such descriptions – from politicians, policy analysts, the media and academics alike – have largely served to legitimise a range of punitive policies aimed at maintaining social cohesion and wellbeing in the ‘national interest’. This focus on communities set apart has also allowed public attention to remain focused on a limited understanding of ‘dangerousness’ and ‘crime’ – a corollary of which is that other more serious social harms (caused by the actions of the powerful) have escaped public scrutiny. Throughout the same time, however, the notion of community has also been embraced by the disadvantaged as a site for mobilising collective engagement in social activism and conflict. For disadvantaged groups, community has served as a symbol of human agency around which collective struggles of resistance have been (and can still be) organised. It is because of its utility as a concept for both the powerful and the disadvantaged that community has remained a fascinating and enduring.