The subject matter of local history is said to be local communities.
Several characteristics are often mentioned - shared resource base,
stability, common history and traditions, shared culture, belonging
and group identification, a certain autonomy, internal interaction
and a certain isolation. When these variables are systematized,
the traditional concept may be pinned down to internal cohesion,
external borders, residential stability and territoriality. However,
the American social scientist Charles Tilly has claimed that this
notion refers to a fictitious unity. Several criticisms have been
directed at the concept, such as drawing borders too strictly, underestimating
mobility and migration beyond the local community and stressing
internal homogeneity too much. Yet, sociology and local history have
clung to the notion, due to a need for constructing cohesion while
the world of the 19th and 20th centuries experienced
huge transformations. As an alternative to the territorially bound
concept, a relational approach is suggested. This opens for thinking
beyond the either-or logic. People may participate in more than
one community, for example digital communities. Finally, some suggested
solutions are addressed, such as John Barnes' network analysis.
Yet there is need for further thinking, Otherwise, local history
may find itself without a scientifically defined subject matter.