By John Cole

People are finding new ways of 'belonging'

(3) The significance of shared feelings

The clue is to recognise that all our most valued relationships are not based on shared self-interest (of course, they never were!) but on shared feelings. This is what really builds community. Sociologists are discovering what Christian theologians have been asserting for years: 'It's love that makes the world go round'. In other words, there is a natural energy in all human beings to group themselves on the basis of shared attitudes and feelings.

And this is what we are now seeing, neat. People no longer form themselves into communities on the basis so much of history or geography, or even of class or political opinion. Instead they now group themselves around the things they enjoy doing together, or their general attitude to life. They'll define their group by such things as the colloquial language that they have in common, or the fact that they share the same heroes or gurus. And it has all been going on happily throughout the time when politicians have been proclaiming the gospel of individualism!

At a structural level we can see people grouping in this way as they join fan clubs and supporters groups (often merely by correspondence). However, most of the 'communities' we are identifying here do not have a structure. They exist, maybe, in newsgroups on the internet, or in shared styles of dressing, or in watching particular TV programmes.

They meet, although they never hold meetings. But despite the lack of organisation, they may have very strong associations with particular places.

They can be identified and targeted by advertisers, but they have no formal leadership, no history and there's no requirement that they should still exist the day after tomorrow.

They have their gate-keepers and the keepers of the shared memory - and many other different roles and responsibilities can be taken by different members of the group - but there are no badges of office, no formal leaders and no appointment procedures.

It is enough that they exist, the natural product of human beings interacting in the here and now.