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A Community Divided: Community and Class in Brisbane's East Ward, 1884-5

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conference contribution
posted on 2024-11-18, 09:08 authored by Bradley Bowden
In a world of global change, where people's lives are often shaped by events beyond either their control or comprehension, the concept of community has an emotional as well as an intellectual appeal. Community provides a link back to a simpler life where neighbour knew neighbour, and where the society as a whole was held together by shared values generated by common interaction. Such shared values and interactions are difficult to sustain in the modern city, where impersonal social relationships predominate. Certainly the concept of community is something which has been explored principally through studies of small to medium sized regional centers. In his pioneering work in the United States, Herbert Gutman contended that, with industrialisation, it was only in such smaller urban centers that community remained a vibrant force. This, Gutman argued, provided a social base forresistance to the most exploitative features of modern capitalism that was impossible to create in larger metropolitan conglomerations. Influenced in part by Gutman's general thesis, the Australian exploration of the concept of community has also largely focused on regional towns, with studies of such centers as Lithgow, Broken Hill, Port Kembla, Wagga Wagga and Ipswich.

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