"Community Studies," a flourishing subfield of sociology in the 1950s and 60s, went into disrepute by the early 1970s as its conceptions of “community” were deemed theoretically incoherent, its methodology suspect, and its conclusions irrelevant in our “post-industrial” world where technology, media, and high-speed transportation seemingly destroyed all notions of the continuity and relevance of place. Yet scholars in diverse academic fields are revisiting the notion of community studies as part of a larger movement in higher education towards inter- and transdisciplinary scholarship and the attempted bridging of the bifurcation of the academy from the pressing realities of local and regional social, cultural, political, and economic issues.

This webpage is thus an initial attempt to synthesize and consolidate an otherwise haphazardly scattered field of inquiry. Read some of my work in this area:

• "Where is Community Studies in Higher Education? Institutionalizing a Scholarship of Engagement", my introduction to a panel presentation at the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) annual meeting, January 26, 2006.

• "Disciplining Service-Learning: Institutionalization and the Case for Community Studies", in the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Academic concentrations, minors, majors, and departments

• California State University - Northridge's Asian American Studies department offers a Community Studies concentration
• Clemson's Sociology department offers a Community Studies concentration
• Ferris State University offers a Community Studies minor
• George Mason University's New Century College offers a Community Studies concentration
• Guilford College offers a Community Studies concentration within their Justice and Policy Studies major
• Northeastern University's department of Sociology & Anthropology offers an Urban Affairs & Community Studies concentration for its graduate program
• Portland State University offers a Community Studies cluster within their University Studies program
• St. Cloud State University has a Community Studies department
• Santa Clara University offers a Community Studies minor
• University of Baltimore offers a Community Studies and Civic Engagement major
• University of California -Santa Cruz has a Community Studies department
• University of Connecticut has an Urban and Community Studies department
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Department of Human and Community Development offers a Community Studies and Outreach PhD program
• University of Maine-Machias offers a Behavioral Sciences & Community Studies major
• University of Massachusetts - Boston's College of Public & Community Service offers a Community Studies major
• University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts offers an Urban and Community Studies minor
• University of Missouri-Columbia's  Department of Rural Sociology has a Community Studies emphasis
• University of Utah's Department of Family & Consumer Studies offers a Consumer & Community Studies major
• University of Vermont offers a graduate program in Education and Community Studies
• University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee has a department of Educational Policy & Community Studies
• Washington State University's Community & Rural Sociology Department offers a Community Studies minor

Research Centers

• Dickinson College's Community Studies Center
• Elon College's Elon Project for Ethnographic Research and Community Studies
• Ferris State University's Community Studies Institute
• Jefferson Community College's Center for Community Studies
• LaGrange College's Center for Community Studies
• Loyola Marymount University's Center for the Study of Los Angeles has a programmatic focus on Community Studies
• Naropa University's Community Studies Center
• Northeastern University's Center for Urban and Regional Policy
• University of Colorado at Boulder's INVST Community Studies
• Vanderbilt University's Center for Community Studies

Web-based resources

• Infed (Informal Education) discussion of Community Studies
• The American Studies Crossroads Project has a subfield devoted to Community Studies
• City and Community (A journal of the ASA Section on Community and Urban Sociology)
• Clearinghouse for the Scholarship of Engagement
• Community Research and Learning Network (CORAL)