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Self‐fulfillment and decline of civic territorial community
Author(s) -
Miller Zane L.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(198610)14:4<353::aid-jcop2290140404>3.0.co;2-r
Subject(s) - dilemma , sacrifice , politics , welfare , sociology , environmental ethics , work (physics) , self interest , political science , political economy , law , epistemology , geography , mechanical engineering , philosophy , archaeology , engineering
Few historians would argue that our times are not characterized by a concern for community. What we have not acknowledged is that the rise of interest in community and neighborhood organization since the 1950s has coincided with a revolt against a deterministic notion of culture as a total way of life definitive of the possibilities of human behavior in particular locations or times. In the past two decades that revolt has centered on a quest for self‐fulfillment. This has led to a public policy dilemma and to a semiparalysis in politics, for in a community of liberated individuals in pursuit of self‐fulfillment there can be no public welfare toward which to work and to sacrifice and over which to argue and make compromises.