Exploring Community Dynamics: An Analysis of Suzanne Keller's Book

This essay provides an analysis of Suzanne Keller's book, 'Community: Pursuing the Dream, Living the Reality,' focusing on her thirty-year case study of Twin Rivers in New Jersey. The analysis explores Keller's perspective on community as both a territory and a set of shared ideals, influenced by thinkers like Plato and Rousseau. It highlights Keller's argument that while globalization poses challenges to community building, local communities have the resilience to adapt and flourish. The essay further examines how the unique structure of Twin Rivers, with its tightly structured townhouses, fostered a sense of community among residents, emphasizing the importance of communal brotherhood and resident involvement in maintaining community spirit. It concludes by suggesting that other communities can learn from Twin Rivers' example in prioritizing people and creating spaces for both children and adults, thereby fostering a strong sense of community.

Running head: ANALYZING SUZANNE KELLER’S BOOK ON COMMUNITY
ANALYZING SUZANNE KELLER’S BOOK ON COMMUNITY
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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ANALYZING SUZANNE KELLER’S BOOK ON COMMUNITY
Answer to question 1:
Suzanne Keller’s book Community: Pursuing the Dream, Living the Reality gives answer
to several questions that the author posed prior to authoring the book.
In her book, Keller makes use of her thirty-year long case study based on the Twin Rivers in
New Jersey to understand the concept of community and answer the fundamental questions. The
works and ideas of great philosophers and social scientists like Plato, Rousseau, Tonnies and de
Tocqueville have greatly influenced Keller. In the first chapter of her book, she mentions the
concept of community according to Plato and others. She explains community such as the
community as a terriorty or a place and community as shared expectations and ideals.
When community refers to shared ideals, the focus shifts to life in common, “resulting in
shared emotional stakes and strong sentimental attachment toward those who share one’s life
space”. She further states that it is important for individuals to move toward collective goals and
not just toward individual goals for the community to exist. However, she states that the
homogenizing influences of globalization and mass communication have deterred the creation of
an ideal community with shared goals. She claims that these obstacles are easy to tackle as local
communities have the capability to continue to flourish. The reason she gives is that local
communities have learned to adjust to the changing lifestyles and “continuing quest for roots”
(Keller, 2003).
It is thus evident that Keller has successfully answered all the questions in her book with
ample evidence and authentic information from her case study.
Answer to question 2:

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ANALYZING SUZANNE KELLER’S BOOK ON COMMUNITY
The Twin Rivers was of specific interest to Keller because it provided her with the
opportunity to see the way a community could be made unique. She asserted that the modern
world suffered from too much stress on “the great big I” (Keller, 2003, p. 11) and least concern
with community, which Keller believed must be the “counterforce to the TV-directed lonely
crowd in the mass society in the 21st century” (Keller, 2003, p. 13). Keller studied the Twins
River set up for thirty years to understand the features that made a community unique. In her
study, she found that there was a predominant structure of the townhouses being tightly
structured. It was, according to Keller, an essential part of the set up because it attracted residents
who attached more value to community. The townhouses fostered a sense of community
although most residents moved there with the prospect of booming economically. Nonetheless,
they were also attracted by its prospect of communal living.
The Twin Rivers provide an example of the modern day community where the
predominance is not the cars but the people. The houses in the community had spaces for both
children and adults to play and do other recreational works respectively, which is similar to other
communities as well. Other communities could learn from Twin Rivers that residents play the
most important role in maintaining the communal brotherhood, peace, and other services despite
initial facing problems such as vandalism of facilities due to inadequate community spirit.

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ANALYZING SUZANNE KELLER’S BOOK ON COMMUNITY
References:
Keller, S. (2003). Community: Pursuing the dream, living the reality (Vol. 15). Princeton
University Press.