Community is an elusive yet frequently invoked concept. Terms like community health, community living, community schools, community policing, community development, and community renewal have become part of the contemporary lexicon.

What has led organizations, and particularly Western governments, to take such an interest in community, and why this interest now? What has caused the increasing acceptance of community as the primary vehicle through which a wide variety of government programs and services should be delivered? And what has this shift of focus meant for those living and working in communities?

Using real-life case studies that include affordable housing and environmental and crime-prevention initiatives, Community is the perfect primer for understanding the theoretical and practical elements of contemporary community policies and practices, ideal for those working, or training to work, at the local level.

Katharine Kelly is an Associate Professor in the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's and Gender Studies and in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa. She is co-author, with Mark Totten, of When Children Kill: A Social-Psychological Study of Youth Homicide (UTP, 2002).

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Tullio Caputo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa.

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