Introduction: Social Murder

Abstract

A social transformation identified as a defining feature of the new millennium concerns the notion that people are less connected to one another and their communities than they were a generation ago. Yet the theme is familiar, social science has produced a number of different variations on this topic over a period spanning at least 150 years. Community decline or its endurance was a persistent issue explored by community studies throughout the 20^th century for example (Lee and Newby, 1983; Wellman, 1979), whilst earlier, community loss was a theme which united the diverse approaches of the classical sociologists Marx, Weber, and Durkheim (Turner, 1988). In Durkheim’s case, it was the disruption caused to community ties by industrialization and urbanization and the search for new sources of solidarity which were a central focus to his work. In a development of Durkheim’s ideas, urban sociologists of the Chicago school linked city life with social isolation and disorganization arguing that ‘slum’ areas could not be communities but were simply alienated areas of transition (Wirth, 1938; Bell and Newby, 1971).