Small Communities

The modern definition of ‘community’ emerges from Ferdinand Tönnies’ influential work Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887) as ideal types of social organization. The distinction between Gemeinschaft (communal society) and the Gesellschaft (associational society) contrasts kinship (traditional bonds, shared collective will) with society (mechanical, contractual relationships driven by individual interest).

Against this backdrop, 'small communities' designate empirically observable social units situated between these two ideal types, in which participation is grounded in repeated, personal interactions among identifiable members. What distinguishes small communities from broader associative forms is that group cohesion is not based primarily on abstract goals or thematic interests, but on durable interpersonal relations that structure collective action and social belonging. Small communities are typically defined as groups from twenty to about three hundred members, a scale generalized by anthropological studies (Robin Dunbar, H. Russell Bernard, Peter Killworth). Interactions within such small-sized communities may be physical, ideological, or virtual, displaying variable degrees of commitment within a tacit or explicit framework of protocols and norms. Traditionally, small communities have close ties among its members and a circumscribed spatial dimension, further reinforced by kinship, common lifestyle, belief systems, or other type of direct social interactions.

This series explores the diversity and pluralism of social behaviour in small communities that coalesce around a sense of belonging, connection, communication, and interaction. The series thus welcomes studies on entities such as parishes, monasteries, collegiate churches, professional corporations, assistance and healthcare institutions, local government elites, schools and universities, and related forms of collective organisation.

The series envisages the use of a wide range of sources, including notarial and ecclesiastical documentation, epigraphic and literary texts, archaeological evidence, material and artistic objects, as well as spatial configurations and landscapes. It equally promotes interdisciplinary methodologies, encouraging the adoption of prosopographical approaches, microhistorical analysis, community-based case studies, and comparative and long-term perspectives. Small Communities welcomes both monographs and edited volumes authored by scholars and other specialists working on communal formations, and particularly values case-study-driven research emerging from academic dissertations, funded research projects, and international conferences or workshops.