ABSTRACT
In the postmodern society, group membership is more fluid and porous than in modern society. Postmodern community is to be found in a re-enchantment of everyday life and no longer on the margins of society; in postmodern society, marginality is everywhere. This chapter discusses some postmodern theories of community, such as those of Nancy and Esposito. It focuses the debate on liminality and the postmodernization of everyday life, discussing some examples, such as taste communities, which are personal communities based on friendship, and New Age travellers. One of the major themes in postmodernist thought over the past twenty years concerns the identity of the self. The chapter focuses on some of the main applications of postmodernism to community. In his study of New Age travellers, Hetherington (2000) sees a connection with the romantic cult in modernity and makes a comparison with the German youth culture in the period prior to the First World War.
