the symbolic construction of community [electronic resource]

[...]... with’ The symbols of community are mental constructs: they provide people with the means to make meaning In so doing, they also provide them with the means to express the particular meanings which the community has for them Everything, therefore, may be grist to the mill of symbolism Moreover, the reality of community in the lives of its members, like that of ‘kinship’ in Schneider’s account of Chicagoans,... the boundary dividing Scotland from England more meaningful to the highlander than those which distinguish him from the lowlander, the Glaswegian from the Edinburghian; the Shetlander from the Orcadian; the inhabitants of one Shetland island from those of another; the members of one township of a Shetland island from the members of another As one goes ‘down’ the scale so the ‘objective’ referents of. .. a matter of feeling, a matter which resides in the minds of the members themselves Thus, although they recognize important differences among themselves, they also suppose themselves to be more like each other than like the members of other communities This is precisely because, although the meanings they attach to the symbols may differ, they share the symbols Indeed, their common ownership of symbols... matter of geography or of special interest It may also be the product of seclusion behind communal boundaries, such as those which communities contrive through symbolic means Here, pragmatic egalitarianism becomes also a rhetorical expression of the integrity of the community It is the presentation to the outside world of the common interests of the members of the community As such, it bears the characteristic... with its members’ unique orientations to it In the face of this variability of meaning, the consciousness of community has to be kept alive through manipulation of its symbols The reality and efficacy of the community s boundary – and, therefore, of the community itself – depends upon its symbolic construction and embellishment This essay discusses some of the features most commonly associated with this... is expressed by its boundaries If the members of a community come to feel that they have less in common with each other than they have with the members of some other community then, clearly, the boundaries have become anomalous and the integrity of the community they enclose has been severely impugned The important Symbol, Culture, Community 21 thrust of this argument is that this relative similarity... the community However, the formulation of such general positions for communication to another party often also feeds back into the community to inform its sense of self, and thereby embellish its symbolic boundaries Further, the expression of egalitarianism across the boundary may often also be a means by which the community expresses its difference from those elsewhere Its members may denigrate the. .. participate in the ‘same’ rituals, pray to the ‘same’ gods, wear similar clothes, and so forth, without subordinating themselves to a tyranny of orthodoxy Individuality and commonality are thus reconcilable Just as the ‘common form’ of the symbol aggregates the various meanings assigned to it, so the symbolic repertoire of a community aggregates the individualities and other differences found within the community. .. society Much like horses dunging out the boundaries of their territory (if readers will forgive the prosaic metaphor), so people put down their social markers symbolically, using the symbolic vocabulary which they can most comfortably assimilate to themselves, and then contributing to it creatively They thereby make community Whether or not people behave within the community mode, or in some more specialized... complete the scenario, it is desirable that we attempt to disperse some of the sociological fog which has persistently enshrouded the community (i) The myth of simplicity and the ‘face-to-face’ society Throughout the Chicago tradition there is to be found the view that urban society is, by definition, more complicated than that of the rural community The view was expressed in the taxonomic classification of . from the Edinburghian; the Shetlander from the Orcadian; the inhabitants of one Shetland island from those of another; the members of one township of a Shetland island from the members of another variability of meaning, the consciousness of community has to be kept alive through manipulation of its symbols. The reality and efficacy of the community s boundary – and, therefore, of the community. important repositories of symbols, whether in the forms of totems, football teams or war memorials. All of these are like the categories of a kinship system: they are symbolic markers of the community which