Counterfeit Community: The Exploitation of Our Longings for Connectedness

By John F. Freie

Book Overview

From gated communities to Heaven's Gate, the idea and practice of community in America have not only declined but mutated. In the process, Americans' longing to be connected to something greater than themselves has intensified. This longing, coupled with an absence of genuine community alternatives, opens the way to counterfeit claims by those promoting economic rather than social agendas. This book examines "counterfeit community" as it has become manifest throughout contemporary American society-in housing, as it shapes our public spaces; in the workplace; in politics; in religion; and most recently, in cyberspace. Promises of community come from those hawking exclusive golf course housing developments, from shopping malls and shopping channels, from "total quality management" and mission statement rhetoric, from televangelists and electronic town meetings-and all lure us in, only to disappoint. As Counterfeit Community shows, building genuine community means no quick fixes and no false appeals. The hard work of weaving relationships must be combined with political, economic, and social change to counter the counterfeit trend. Marshaling positive examples of genuine community as well as increasing our sensitivity to false ringers, this book starts us along the way.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0847688720
• ISBN13: 9780847688722
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

This book Challenged Me

I must admit I had become a "community bigot" Thinking I knew all about community and what it meant to me, and those around me. But every page made me question my beliefs, it is a great way to counter the "pop" culture "community" book NetGain. I would recommend this to anyone who is working to build a community or is in one now to read this book

An excellent book on our Missing Community.

Trying to get people to work together has been proving more and more difficult. Gone is the spirit of Volunteerism in numbers adequate to accomplish things. Why do people feel connected to each other on the Web but fear talking to someone new in person? This book shows how most of the institutions and commercial entities fundamentally work to keep us apart, and how pervasive that logic has become in our daily lives. It shows clearly what core fundamental essential concepts are required for community, and how these concepts are missing from the very things reporting to bring us together. Work, Politics, The Internet, Planned Communities, and more, all pretend to be community, but are warped images of concepts we believe to represent community. An invaluable aid to anyone who is trying to help build community, by it's clear and precise look at how and why we are loosing that fight, and offers solid advice for where we should go from here.