The Community

Sage Reference is very pleased to announce the Encyclopedia of Community, a major reference work that summarizes everything we know about how we humans come together. Community itself is a concept, an experience, and a central part of being human. The encyclopedia covers communities of the past and present, from 19th century utopians, to the communes of the 1960's, to today's Rotary Club, Amish, and cyber communities. Developed by award winning editors Karen Christensen and David Levinson with a board of leading scholars, the Encyclopedia of Community is essential for history, sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, and public administration students and the interested public, who will turn to the encyclopedia for inspiration and illumination, stories and strategies.

Many of our current social problems have been attributed to the breakdown or loss of community as a place and to the fragmentation of connections due to an extreme value of individualism in the Western world, particularly in the United States. Not all scholars and researchers agree that individualism and technology are the primary culprits in the loss of community as it existed in the middle decade of the 20th century. Nonetheless, people exist in groups, and connections are vital to their existence and in the daily performance of activities. The second edition of the Sociology of Community Connections will identify and help students understand community connectedness in the present and future.