Community as Urban Practice

Talja Blokland is Professor of Urban Sociology at the Humboldt University, Berlin

• Acknowledgements 1 Introduction2 Traditions of Theorizing Community3 Community as Culture4 Engagements, Encounters, Social Ties5 Relational Settings of Belonging6 Practices of Exclusion7 ConclusionReferences

"Everybody thinks they know what the concept of community means, but it proves increasingly elusive as you try to pin it down. Talja Blokland, one of the most perceptive observers of how we live together in cities, here offers a compelling interpretation that focuses on how we perform communities, especially by drawing their boundaries."—John Mollenkopf, Graduate Center, City University of New York"Talja Blokland's beautful book explains why the search for community retains its importance into the twenty-first century. She provides a wonderful, comprehensive overview of recent research to show that communities are not a nostalgic throwback, but continue to matter as they are produced by ongoing social ties, symbolic identities, and struggles."—Mike Savage, London School of Economics and Political Science"From fluid relations to ritualized, hierarchical performances, Blokland draws on a wide range of cases to show that "community" is neither homogeneous nor permanent, yet it remains a focus of longing in an anxious, urban world. Humans perform community to define society: an effort to find a place between intimacy and anonymity, the public and the private, the home and the world."—Sharon Zukin, Brooklyn College and Graduate Center, City University of New York