Introduction: Disability and Community

Within the western tradition of the social sciences, community has been a key concept in understanding social solidarity and social change for over a century. Classic social theorists noted the threats to community with the growth of market economies, urbanization, and migration, even before the advent of mass society and globalization, and certainly in their wake. Social scientists and policy makers have sought to understand and preserve community in the face of poverty, exploitation, and marginalization and to promote its development where it may be lacking.