ABSTRACT
Introduction: locality - fashion or reality? Locality has suddenly emerged as one o f the m ore popular ideas in social science, especially in sociology, geography, urban and regional studies, and political science. A content analysis m ight reveal the term vying for place w ith structure, and cause, if not yet approaching the use levels o f class, status or gender. But it is an infuriating idea. It is one that seems to signify something im portant, and indeed m ost people seem to know - roughly - what it signifies for them. Yet few would care to explain w hat locality (or is it a locality or even the locality) actually is. Even fewer, I suspect, w ould agree on the result - even if there was one.
