Renegotiating Community: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Global Contexts

Both as a concept and as a social form, community is central to contemporary debates about globalization. Yet there is no consensus on why community matters or how globalization affects particular communities. What seems clear, however, is that people are seeking to claim, retain, or reconsider how they define and represent themselves, live together, and determine their futures. Autonomy in this sense has become a compelling question for communities across the world. Renegotiating Community asks what happens to the autonomy of individuals and communities in such circumstances. Original case studies show how a range of communities are renegotiating the meanings of community and autonomy while living with, and sometimes challenging, the processes of globalization. By addressing the coercive and comforting dimensions of community and the need to reconcile conflicting claims to autonomy, this book redraws the conceptual maps through which community, globalization, and autonomy are understood.