ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way in which this community-rural relationship works with such proximity in both social science research and deliberations and in everyday rural contexts. It begins by acknowledging the assumptions, ambiguities and anxieties that are associated with the concept of community before tracing the extent to which it has shaped social research agendas. The chapter has argued that the examples of studies of rural communities reveal a rather more complex picture of mutuality and highly stratified patterns of social relations. It is worth recalling the Appleby conversation here and the group's assertion of a whole village community as it reflects both a Newby and a Strathern analysis of assertions of villages of belonging despite internal divisions. The chapter also argues that the contemporary re-engagement with community and its populist ascendancy reflect the concept's uncanny ability to work as a post-modern longing for pre-modern forms of social relations.
