ABSTRACT
The development of cities, and in particular the onset of industrial urbanism, exerted a major influence on the nature of human association. For Tonnies (1887), urbanisation undermined a traditional rural way of life based on family, kinship and community (Gemeinschaft) that was replaced by an impersonal, contractual, self-centred lifestyle (Gesellschaft) characteristic of towns and cities. Individuality, not community, is the hallmark of urban life.1 This perspective was reinforced by Durkheim (1893),2 Spengler (1918)3 and, in particular, Wirth (1938),4 who believed that urbanites, regardless of social rank or ethnic status, inevitably react to their physical and social surroundings in a depersonalised 'urban' manner. This argument questions the possibility of community life in the modern city.
