August 25, 2004

defending community

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a bit rough on communitarianism. It says:


" ....when the term community is employed by political communitarians, it seems to mean anything they want it to mean. Worse .... it has often been used to justify hierarchical arrangements and delegitimize areas of conflict and contestation in modern societies. Still, it is possible to make sense of the term community as a normative ideal."

Why just an ideal. Communities exist in a globalized world. The Barossa wine region in South Australia is one. It has a strong regional identity; one marked by relations of economic power between growers and winemakers, large and small wineries. There is conflict within the region even though the region has a unity.

On the other hand, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy does recognize is the republican tradition within communitarianism, with its "vision of strong democracy supported by active, public-spirited citizens who participate in political decision-making and held shape the future direction of their society though political debate."

Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at August 25, 2004 11:41 PM | TrackBack
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