"Networks, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Approaches to the Study of the Community Question"

The authors begin with a discussion of the central place of the neighborhood in community and urban sociology. They move on to a discussion of the “community question” and identify the traditional prevalence of the story of “community lost.” They conclude that, though there is revived interest in the status of neighborhood-based communities (community saved), it is more interesting to consider the ways that community is being fostered (community liberated) without the attachment to neighborhood. While neighborhood has traditionally been a “crucial nexus” for normative integration of the individual with the larger social system, they argue for freedom from place attachment to comprehend the growth of more sparsely knit social networks that offer the rewards of community without propinquity.