Introduction to the Special Section, 'Struggles in Building Community.'.

The article focuses on the awareness of sociology interest in community studies and community development. This set of papers is one of many attempts by the authors to reawaken Sociology's interest in community studies and community development. Community is a group of people who share a common territory or ecology. Communities share a common culture and set of institutions involved in the provision of daily needs. But, by far, the most important component of community is interaction among residents about that ecology, that culture, and those institutions. The implication then is that community is built through the promotion of interaction among residents and the elimination, or at least the reduction, of barriers to such interaction. It is through locally oriented interaction that residents work toward improvement of the local social institutions, culture, and ecology; this is how they alter the social forces that most directly affect them. This growth, however, is not due to tax incentives come manly assumed to affect local business climates and growth. The growth is more likely a response to the quality of life in a place and services they provide The paper makes links between these findings and what is commonly thought of as community development.