Can We Speak of Communities?

A commenter asked me if we can speak of such thing as a community. It's a decent question because more than anything, we encounter boundaries. For instance, can we speak of the academic community? Of course we can because we do, but what assumptions do we make? At least from how I have caught the parlance, the academic community typically involves the PhD holders and pursuers doing research to add to the corporate body of knowledge. Yet, this statement reflects both a broad and narrow definition. For instance, this definition excludes undergraduate students, even if these students participate in undergraduate research. Moreover, this definition also excludes PhD holders working outside of research&development. However, these features of exclusion speak to the reality of the academic community; without such features, it would be difficult to theorize of the academic pipeline as leakage represents a key feature of this image.

On one level communities make sense, but something as broadly configured as the "academic community" does not offer enough description for significant utility. For instance, STEM communities differ from your humanities communities. Within STEM, you have science, technology, engineering and mathematics communities. The gradation continues to the point of sub-sub-sub-sub-fields to the point where individuals can make a difference. So while we can be in error to unilaterally ascribe features to an entire community, boundaries help us understand the rules of the game. Within several academic communities, one must hold an advanced degree in order to participate fully. While particulars vary within various sub-groupings, generalities help us help one another.

To be sure, much of human activity relates to categorizing and ascribing labels. We can debate the particulars of who can employ what labels to describe themselves and others.