Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Community and economy are two distinct realms of social life. In communities, we largely deal with one another as persons. We value people not only in their own right, but also as neighbors, friends, and those with whom we share a concern for the common good. In the economy, we largely deal with one another as buyers and sellers, as consumers and marketers, and as management and labor. In this realm we often seek to maximize our self-interest. In Martin Buber's (1971) terms, the community is the realm of the I-Thou, the economy that of the I-It. The opposition is not complete. Some people will seek advantage in the realm of community; for example, they may seek to form business connections in the country club. Other people do develop relationships of friendship and loyalty at work. Still, there are basic differences between the two social realms that exist along the lines previously mentioned. Societies differ according to the relative importance and scope that they accord to community and economy. In earlier historical periods, most if not all societies were more community minded and less economically minded. The terms modernization and industrialization, or the rise of capitalism, are used as markers to indicate when the economy rose in importance and the community declined in importance. In recent decades, societies such as China and India have begun moving in the same direction ... log in or subscribe to read full text