Constitutive communication in the (re)creation of community

Abstract

Given physical intervention’s lack of success in transforming neighbourhoods into communities, communication presents a compelling opportunity for study, with potential to identify tools to organize neighbourhoods into effective, self-conscious and integrated communities. To that end, this qualitative study examines how communication constitutes community within the neighbourhood of Strathcona. The neighbourhood is viewed through the lens of constitutive organization theory (Communicative Constitution of Organizations, or CCO), considering place as a function of materialized communication. This research uses McPhee’s Four Flows framework to form the basis of deductive category development in a qualitative content analysis of transcribed interviews with neighbourhood residents (9). The results of this research are then considered in the context of contemporary research into community development within neighbourhoods to derive insights into the role that communication plays in constituting community within a neighbourhood.