Abstract

The term community has proved to be remarkably resilient in rural policy-making, where it is used across a range of policy discourses. Policy narratives seldom acknowledge the multiple meanings associated with the term community; they therefore fail to make a distinction between community as it is experienced in everyday settings, and more formal community organising. However, policies and governance seeking to mobilise communities often rely on formal community organisations to represent the 'community' in multi-level governance partnerships. Following research with two rural communities in Scotland this article explores different experiences of community, and sense of community in place. We then look at what these understandings and experiences of community mean for the creation and maintenance of formal, community-led organisations, their inclusion in policies of community empowerment and resilience, and rural governance more widely.

Published in

Sociologia Ruralis
2019, Volume: 60, number: 1, pages: 243-259
Publisher: WILEY

SLU Authors

• Fischer, Anke

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Sociology (excluding Social work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12273

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/102172