Community. It’s a word we are used to hearing everywhere from political speeches to fast-food advertisements. But can we really define it?

Using her own experiences, joyful or painful, in communities, as well a strong analysis of political and cultural shifts, Casey Plett shows how overuse of the word has caused it to become disconnected from the reality it signifies.

Here, Plett suggests an alternative, moving towards a definition that acknowledges community as necessary for our existence – a source of comfort, knowledge and love – even while it has the potential to become dogmatic, cliquey or outright harmful.

On Community does crucial work in pushing harder on words and ideas we take for granted. It invites us to be more careful and intentional with our language, to consider how we relate to those we know – and to those we don’t know at all.