Performing community: Community service as cultural conversation

Abstract

Despite the recovery of the traditions of community in public philosophy, political science, and organizational studies, little attention has been given to the social construction of the meaningfulness of community by organizational members. This study examined the ways in which the term community was central to the discourse and organizing practices of a community service organization. Organizational practices referenced both organizational and cultural significances particularly in the conflicting traditions and themes of individualism and social commitment. In addition, “community service” blurred the boundaries between the external and internal workings of the organization. Emphasizing the relationships between cultural systems of signification and meaningful practices of organizing provided a way of understanding the increasingly less clear boundaries of the postmodern organization.