Clements, D., A. Donald, et al., Eds. (2008). The future of community: reports of a death greatly exaggerated. London, Pluto Press.
This edited book of short essays explores recent debates about the future of community in the UK, drawing primarily on UK examples but also including international examples from Ireland and America. The short essays are critical of official government discourses and policies which use the 'idea of community', arguing that these ideas of community are conservative, top-down, and lacking in real community engagement. The essays draw on a range of academic and media sources, with the primary method being non-academic (at times polemical) forms of media and discourse analysis. The essays address a wide range of themes, including government attempts at engaging with communities to 'fake civil society' (Clements), green communities, public space and community, working class and minority communities, virtual communities, migrant communities, youth communities and crime, and religious communities, amongst other topics. The subtitle 'reports of a death greatly exaggerated', a reference to the famous line by Mark Twain, refers to the 'hysteria' around the perceived decline of community within UK government and media circles, whereas 'real' communities of the 21st century continue to exist in myriad and vibrant (albeit often contested) ways.