On Wednesday 23rd January, over 100 guests joined a conversation at Sheffield Hallam University about the nature of ‘community’: what it is, how we research it, what it means to people as a term and as a resource, and what are the problems community can cause and solve. Leading the debate was Graham Crow, Professor of Sociology at the University of Edinburgh and author of the recent book ‘What are community studies?’, published by Bloomsbury. Crow’s presentation traced the recent history of community studies as an approach to research, of what embedded and focused research can achieve through careful study. Through a variety of case studies and examples, Crow’s argument focused on community studies’ ability to facilitate voice for communities, monitor social change, and theorise the relationship between the individual and the group – but also the need for such studies to understand the changing nature of community, including in its move online, and ensure ethical relationships between researchers and community members themselves.
In response, Dr Eleanor Formby and Dr Manny Madriaga, both of Sheffield Hallam University, discussed their research into different strands of community. Formby’s work on the problematic notion of the ‘LGBT community’ shows how such a notion can minimalize and misunderstand the diverse needs of LGBT people thereby heightening feelings of exclusion or isolation. Similarly, Madriaga’s work showed how the conceptualisation of ‘BME’ students as a community can be deeply reductive and serves to racially ‘Other’ certain students, such categorisations reinforcing unequal experiences. These three presentations led to a lively and engaged debate among attendees, around the notions of both the negative side of community, especially around exacerbating social divisions, and, in policy terms, how policy practitioners who want to develop a better sense of community should approach the issue given the challenging and precarious contexts of life in the twenty-first century.
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