The Trouble with Community: Anthropological Reflections on Movement, Identity and Collectivity (Anthropology, Culture and Society)

'Community' is one of social science's longest-standing concepts. The assumption, of much social science, has been that it is in communities -- and to communities -- that human individuals, as social and cultural beings, belong. Communities are said to embody that interactive environment from which individuals' identities and senses of self derive, and in which they continue to dwell. The trouble with 'community' is that this is not necessarily so; the personal social networks of individuals' actual experience crosscut collective categories, situations and institutions. Communities can prove unviable or imprisoning; the reality of community life and identity can often be very different from the ideology and the ideal.In this provocative new book, anthropologists Vered Amit and Nigel Rapport draw on their various ethnographic experiences to reappraise the concept and the reality of 'community', in the light of globalization, religious fundamentalism, identity politics, and renascent localisms. How might anthropology better apprehend social identities which are intrinsically plural, transgressive and ironic? What has anthropology to say about the way in which civil society might hope to accommodate the on-going construction and the rightful expression of such migrant identities? Nigel Rapport and Vered Amit give their own answers to these questions before entering into dialogue to assess each other's positions.Nigel Rapport is Professor of Anthropological and Philosophical Studies at the University of St. Andrews. He is author of Transcendent Individual (1997). Vered Amit is an Associate Professor at Concordia University in Montreal. She is the editor of Realizing Community (2002). 'Community'is one of social science's longest-standing concepts. The assumption of much social science has been that humans belong in communities, as social and cultural beings. The trouble with'community'is that this is not necessarily so; the personal social networks of individuals'actual experience crosscut collective categories, situations and institutions. Communities can prove unviable or imprisoning; the reality of community life and identity can often be very different from the ideology and the ideal. In this book, the authors draw on their ethnographic experiences to reappraise the concept and the reality of'community', in the light of globalisation, religious fundamentalism, identity politics, and renascent localisms. How might anthropology better apprehend social identities which are intrinsically plural, transgressive and ironic? What has anthropology to say about the way in which civil society might hope to accommodate the ongoing construction and the rightful expression of such migrant identities? This book reassesses the concept of community within anthropological studies. The practice of fieldwork in anthropology has traditionally been undertaken with the assumption that places are fixed in time and space. This approach has now been extensively revised by contemporary anthropologists who are more likely to stress the mobility of modern society, which is characterised by migration, shifting identities and boundaries. Nigel Rapport and Vered Amit-Talai move on from this argument to ask--as local economies are now embedded within global systems of production, and yet migrants frequently face barriers to their own movements--how should we now conceive of the interaction between sociality and individuality? What are the political, theoretical and ethnographic implications of this interaction? [publisher] A rethinking of popular political movements, this book looks at new, emerging, mass visions and analyses their impact and potential in new ways. Vered Amit And Nigel Rapport. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.