Tonnies: Community and Civil Society

Ferdinand Tönnies'' Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (first published in 1887) is a classic of social and political theory, which explores the clash between small-scale neighbourhood-based ''communities'' and large-scale competitive market ''societies''. Tönnies considers all aspects of life - political, economic, legal and family; art, religion and culture; the construction of ''selfhood'' and ''per...