ABSTRACT
Johannesburg's origins as a mining town not only conditioned the economic development of the city and its inhabitants but it also shaped the city's daily life in many ways. This chapter explores the development of a sense of community amongst white workers in Johannesburg between 1890 and 1922. This sense of community often ran across the ethnic boundaries between English-speakers and Afrikaans-speakers, involved men as well as women and children, and grew in the often multiracial environment of the white working class neighbourhoods. On the one hand, if it is accepted that community is not a precondition to the existence of a social group but a process, the immediate question is about the elements involved in such a process and their interactions. On the other hand, if community is a concept that helps to bridge the distance between the theory of a class and its reality, what is the role of material conditions and culture in moulding a community?
