Why Community? Reading Difference and Singularity with Community

Geographers have increasingly recognised that communities are not homogeneous social formations but contain great diversity and are meaningful in a variety of material, relational and political ways. This has resulted in the apparently contradictory notion of “community with difference”; that community may be performed even while heterogeneity and disagreement are present. But geographers have yet to address satisfactorily the question of why communities continue to be the subject of fascination and study when attempts at definition have proved so problematic. Following on from Young's critique of community, this paper first engages the work of Nancy and Secomb to consider Nancy's conceptualisation of ‘singularity’ as a way to explain the human construction of—and possible need for—notions of community. In short we address the why community? question. Using a rural Australian case study, we demonstrate that meanings of community reflect many differences. This case also illustrates the role of human singularity in the negotiation of these differences, defining the manner in which individual perspectives of community are articulated as well as underpinning people's responses and struggles when ideas of community are challenged.