ABSTRACT
The concept of commonality, of 'community', is considered as 'natural' to humanity and is based on the co-operative relations necessary to ensure survival. The idea of community was linked to a political purpose and to the exclusion of others, but in its formation it also bound otherwise unconnected people together in a powerful. The wholesale transformation of social life at the beginning of the twentieth century inspired an exploration of the impact of change which can be traced in the rise of 'community studies' which either documented actually existing communities or explored the changing nature of social life through the lens of the 'community' or 'neighbourhood'. The chapter focuses on the work of a number of key theorists, such as Georg Simmel, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Ferdinand Tonnies, who made significant contributions to the study of community. Durkheim, unlike Tonnies, hailed from a scholarly family and had grown up in the city rather than.
