The idea of community occupied an important place in the reflections of the sociolog-ical classics. For Marx, Tönnies, Weber, Dürkheim, Simmel, and others, it was a tool of analysis and description or of critiquing and surpassing modern society. Parsons attempts a refoundation (and reunification) of sociological theory. He must, then, face the ubiquity of the notion of community in social theory. Present throughout his work, community reappears crucially in his last theoretical formulations as "societal com-munity." This article will delve into the conditions and implications of a the Parsonian use of the notion of "community." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]