Geography 2410A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: The Neighbourhood

• School: Western University
• Department: Geography
• Course: Geography 2410A/B
• Professor: Wes Kinghorn

Document Summary

Ge(cid:374)eral co(cid:374)se(cid:374)sus that (cid:858)co(cid:373)(cid:373)u(cid:374)it(cid:455)(cid:859) is a good thi(cid:374)g. The idea of community appeals to the political left as it appears to emphasize notions of group solidarity, collective action and responsibility. To the political right, community has considerable appeal because it carries with it ideas of people taking responsibility for themselves, rather than relying on the state. Control is more easily exercised over an identifiable spatial unit and this may well be an i(cid:373)porta(cid:374)t e(cid:454)pla(cid:374)atio(cid:374) for the state(cid:859)s co(cid:374)ti(cid:374)ui(cid:374)g e(cid:374)thusias(cid:373) for the co(cid:373)(cid:373)u(cid:374)it(cid:455) ideal. Much more frequently, the idea of community is applied to a neighbourhood or residential area. As society is differentiated along lines of class, gender, race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation and ability, communities develop that are not necessarily defined by spatial propinquity. Other interest groups form communities of a sort, based on shared characteristics of employment or leisure pursuits, or social and political activism. Most of us associate with several different types of community.