But in some very important other ways, our contemporary vision of community is quite different. From many people, one community. Having said all that, I don't want to leave the impression that commonality and location no longer play central roles in the construction of community. They often do, of course. These examples point to the fundamental difference between classical and contemporary understandings of community.
Community is no longer something given by birth or location.
Rather it is something we seek to achieve, something to be made or constructed. Once community came to be conceived in such terms, it became both variable and problematic. A few weeks ago Diana sent me an article written by an English professor at a large research university. The rest of the article describes this professor's attempts to create community at her university and her reflections on those attempts. With the assistance of a colleague from a different department, this professor invited seven or eight other people from the university to meet to discuss their views of what was missing in their workplace.