1 In ecology, a naturally occurring, non-random, collection of plant and animal life within a specified environment. Badano and Cavieres (2006) J. Biogeog. 33, 2 discuss the view that increases in habitat complexity due to the presence of ecosystem engineers lead to higher community diversity.

2 In human geography, the population and the interconnections of that population in a particular area, town, village, suburb, or neighbourhood; a set of shared values, practices, and ways of being in the world (A. Latham et al. 2009). Ryan-Nicholls and Racher (2004) Rural & Remote Health 4, 244 see community as a subject with its own construction of reality, unique needs, values, and assets, while Lacy (2000) Rural Soc. 65 sees community as the container for the development of social cohesion, human endeavour, empowerment, and place formation. ‘In taking up…the classical distinction between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, networking practices in the transient word of projects might be differentiated into network communality, network sociality and network connectivity’ (Grabner (2004) PHG 24, 4). A. Amin (with N. Thrift, 2004), uses the concept of communities of practice: the process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. Communities of practice act as performative spaces for learning by homogeneous groups of employees, not only via spatial proximity, but also at a distance (J. Peck and H. Yeung, eds. 2003).