Community as lifestyle
Recently, as we enter a post-industrial and post-modern era, the notion of community has evolved. There are the forementioned lifestyle enclaves described by Robert Bellah and his associates in Habits of the Heart (Bellah and others, 1985) and the virtual communities that have become dominant in many technologically advanced societies. People no longer spend all their free time interacting with people living next door, working in the same organization, or ensconced in the same ethnic enclave. In many suburban communities throughout the world, residents might not even know the name of their neighbors, especially if they are living in suburbs where high rates of mobility prevail. During the last few years (often driven by the COVID-19 virus), in-person workplaces are being replaced by virtual settings in which employees interact via digital-mediated venues.
Lifestyle enclaves are now not just virtual. They are also built around avocational interests rather than ethnic heritage. Suburbanites spend a Saturday afternoon attending a sports car rally or going to the gym three miles away to work out with their friends. The local ethnic enclaves are now often repurposed with a more specific focus on cuisine from the homeland or “folk” dancing based on back-home traditions. During the past decade, it has become even more likely that they are spending Saturday afternoon (and most weekday afternoons or evenings) conversing with their Internet buddies from the homeland. Virtual ethnic enclaves now exist. Relatives and friends remaining in the homeland join on Skype with family members and friends who migrated to a new country (such as the USA). Family and friends stay connected via the Internet rather than settling together in the neighborhood of a major city (such as Chicago) or a smaller community that specifically welcomes refugees (such as Auburn Maine). Collective Worth is still created and sustained in these “neighborhoods,” but they are now virtual.
A similar story can be told about those working in virtual environments. Instead of going out for a beer (or wine) after work with their fellow workers, they are likely to shift from their work-based email account to their mobile device for chats with their Internet buddies. No beer or wine. Rather, an after-work sharing of thoughts and feelings with those holding similar values and perspectives. Virtual Collective Worth is built and sustained among members of the same lifestyle enclave. While most of us find little value (Worth) in a well-maintained 1939 Bantom Nine Roadster, produced by the British Singer automobile company, there are those in a British auto enclave who would assign great Worth to this car and even greater Worth to the diligent owner who has maintained this classic automobile.
It is easy to declare that the lifestyle enclaves are new and that the Internet and virtual workplaces have changed everything. Before doing so, perhaps we should consider ways things haven’t changed. The lifestyle enclaves of the 21st Century might be variants on the ghettoes that existed at an earlier time (and still exist in some societies). It is all about shared perspectives, interests, histories, and even language (with technical terms, and shorthand terms and abbreviations now being bandied about inside the enclaves). Our Mill Girls and Harvey Girls might have created their own lifestyle enclaves, even without a computer or mobile device to aid in creating these enclaves. Eating and living together in a dormitory might have done the trick.
