These conclusions invoke numerous questions about the role of community in
CSA. Is the notion of community in CSA meaningless? Without an active membership
base can CSA still help build community and if so how? Are there other ways to framehe community-building potential of CSA? To answer these questions I turn to the
sociological literature on community. This literature encompasses numerous definitions,
meanings, and theories of community. This diversity of perspectives about community
provides a variety of ways to expand the assessment of CSA’s community-building
potential. The first section of this chapter therefore provides a brief overview of the
different ways community has been conceptualized by sociologists. The second section
merges similar community concepts into a multidimensional framework useful for a more
extensive evaluation of CSA’s community-building potential. The framework is then
used in Chapter 6 to present my research findings from a case study of the Washington
State University Organic Farm CSA Program.