Constitutive Communities:
Text: Daniel Bell, Communitarianism and its Critics, Act III (D2L)
The main concept introduced and explained in this text is the ‘constitutive community.’ Briefly, Bell argues that certain communities are constitutive of our personal identity. Embracing these communities as part of our identity gives meaning and fulfillment to our lives, while rejecting them results in ‘damaged human personhood.’
In the text, Bell details several characteristics of constitutive communities, and explains how we might go about identifying what communities are constitutive of our own identity.
In the first column below, identify the characteristics of constitutive communities. For each characteristic, provide a short supporting quote from the text. In the second column, identify how this characteristic helps to identify one of your constitutive communities.