The Community Question

This article elaborates on Wellman and Leighton's discussion of the neighborhood's role as a community and attempts to integrate it with the concept of the "community of limited liability." Although in basic agreement with Wellman and Leighton's conclusions, the article argues that their definition of community focuses too narrowly on interpersonal relations, ignoring other important community functions performed at least partially in the neighborhood. The article describes the degree to which people participate in the community functions of their neighborhood and the extent to which Wellman and Leighton's conclusions are substantiated. The data used indicate a differentiated and specialized pattern of neighborhood participation in which there are at least four independent dimensions. These findings support the "community of limited liability" concept, which says that the neighborhood continues to play a varyingly important role in peoples lives, depending on their degree of "local status" in the community.