Model of Civic Community: Conceptualizing Community for Democratic Practice

Community has been recognized as necessary unit for democracy. The contemporary configuration of our communities requires us to develop a comprehensive model of community, through which we can assess its internal and external dynamics. Moreover, the community model should embrace potential to enhance civic engagement and democratic practices in order to improve local communities' strategies for addressing many emerging issues. For this, I develop a model of civic community based on a critical review and synthesis of three influential modern social thinkers' theories: Talcott Parsons's system theory, Pierre Bourdieu's field theory and Jurgen Habermas's theories of communicative action. (C) 2008 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.