Dilemmas of community participation

A return to community norms and cultural visions, without encouraging exclusivity and barriers, is an extremely delicate task, says the author in the concluding part of a series

From the point of view of a liberal democracy there is a dilemma in social insurance against risks and financial crunch at the community level. On the one hand, kinship groups in traditional communities often provide to their members scarce credit as well as emotional support at times of emergency need, and help in small loans for regular business or job referrals for migrating members and insure against idiosyncratic risks — these useful functions and reciprocal obligations make such group ties quite resilient (and help some ethnic business groups to succeed in conditions of scarcity of entrepreneurial opportunities and capital).

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