Of Elephants, Opinions, and Partial Truths: Communities in Motion

Concepts of place and community are central to the ways in which people relate to and interact with each other and to the environments in which they function. This paper discusses the role of personal and social meaning in the development of these concepts and, in particular, discusses the relevance of Massey's (1995) concept of social networks as the framework within which the creation and exchange of meaning can occur. The paper further emphasizes that, in the investigations into behaviour within communities and place, there is a need to retain an holistic approach to the study of the phenomena that includes not only the phenomena but the context within which that phenomena occurs.