Phillip Thurtle wrote:
Regarding the functionalism of the definition of "community" by the internal members of the community: Although frustratingly abstract, I find Niklas Luhmann's work on social systems the most elegant probe of this topic. For Luhmann, social systems reproduce themselves by using internal codes to distinguish the "inside" of the social system from the "outside". Thus the identity formation of a community is very much attached to how the community sees itself in an environment and thus implicated in the belief systems held by the community. _Social Systems_ is the magnum opus here, but his _Ecological Communications_ provides a much more manageable introduction to his thought. Also, there is finally a good secondary source on Luhmann in English, William Rasch's _Niklas Luhmann's Modernity: The Paradoxes of Differentiation_.
I.e., Luhmen is yet another social scientist who portrays societies as monoliths. While there may be sociological reasons for such notions, there certainly aren't empirical ones. --Christian Nelson