Community, Home, and Identity

Book excerpt: Community, home, and identity are concepts that have concerned scholars in a variety of fields for some time. Legal scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and economists, among others, have studied the impacts of home and community on one's identity and how one's identity is manifested in one's home and in one's community. This volume brings together some of the leading thinkers about the connections between community, home and identity. Several chapters address how the law and lawyers contribute (or detract) from the creation and maintenance of community and, in some cases, the conscious destruction of communities. Others examine the protection of individual and group identities through rules related to property title and use of such things as Home and 'identity property'.