Community Types, Community Typologies and Community Time

Abstract

`Community' continues to be a key concept in social science, but frequently the types of community being identified are treated in an unsystematic way. Distinctions between community's spatial, social structural and interpretive dimensions go some way towards remedying this situation, but community's temporal dimension tends to be neglected. Considering `community time' as community's fourth dimension allows more sophisticated analyses of the interconnectedness of communities as places, social structures and meanings. By paying attention to `community time', we may develop new typologies better suited to the comparative research perspective which is re-establishing itself in the field.