Julian Coman is spot-on (Politicians may have forgotten about ‘community’, but British people haven’t, 7 February). We know that humans develop as individuals within a social environment, initially (at least in the west) within their families but always within a wider community. Communities of one sort or another make us who we are. The “I” develops from the “we” – hence the fundamental human need to belong.
We edited a book – The Politics of Attachment, published in 1996 and including contributions from soon-to-be Labour ministers – that explored ways in which public policy could build on the power of attachment and the need to belong that remains as powerful as ever.
