The Seductions of Community: Emancipations, Oppressions, Quandaries

by Creed, Gerald W.

• ISBN13: 9781930618688
• ISBN10: 1930618689
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-06-30
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr

Summary

The concept of community is ubiquitous in the way we talk and think about life in the twentyfirst century. Political and economic projects from rainforest conservation to urban empowerment zones focus on the community as the appropriate vehicle and target of change. Some scholars see a decline of community and predict dire social consequences; others criticize the concept itself for its ideological baggage and lack of clear definition. Moving the debate to a deeper level, the contributors to this volume aspire to understand the various ways community is deployed and the work it performs in different contexts. They compare the many cases where scholars and activists use community generically with instances in which the notion of community is less pervasive or even non-existent. How does a community facilitate governance or capital accumulation? In what ways does it articulate these two forces in local and translocal contexts? What are the unintended consequences of deploying the concept-and what, too, are the potential consequences of criticizing our fascination with it? The essays demonstrate the critical value of using community as the focus of analysis, rather than simply an empty category of heuristic or descriptive convenience.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
1. Reconsidering Community	3	(20)
Gerald W. Creed
2. Community as Modern Pastoral	23	(26)
Gerald W. Creed
3. Hunting the Unicorn: Art and Community in East London	49	(28)
Kate Crehan
4. Ayllu: Real and Imagined Communities in the Andes	77	(24)
Mary Weismantel
5. The Sinister Political Life of Community: Economies of Violence and Governable Spaces in the Niger Delta, Nigeria	101	(42)
Michael Watts
6. Caribbean "Community"? Deciphering a Regional Cipher	143	(32)
Aisha Khan
7. Conflicting Concepts of Community: Diversity and Diaspora in American Suburbs	175	(24)
Susan H. Lees
8. A Debt to Society	199	(28)
Miranda Joseph
9. Seeing Communities: Technologies of Visualization in Conservation	227	(28)
Peter Brosius
10. The Politics of Community: Some Notes from India	255	(24)
Gyanendra Pandey
References	279	(34)
Index	313