ABSTRACT
The concept of community According to what has become a standard story in the social sciences, the increasing mobility of people and information has made nations much less homogeneous than they once were, with political authority evaporating to levels above that of the state. Since such global flows allegedly undermine the foundations of the modern nation state, traditional conceptions of community have lost much of their analytical and normative import. In response to this challenge, many scholars have tried to articulate new conceptions of political community better suited to make sense of the contemporary world. Behind this quest for community lies the widespread conviction that some conception of community – whether democratic or not – is necessary in order to justify emergent forms of political authority beyond or below the state level.
