The thesis of the paper is that there is a need for social science researchers and community development practitioners to focus on the fundamental problem of the loss of a sense of community in American life (we define sense of community as the existence of shared meaning and trust among individuals). We see the problems of environmental quality, provision of public services and concerns about other factors considered to be in the rubric of quality of life as symptomatic of this fundamental breakdown in community. The erosion of community is being accompanied by increasing attempts to maintain or strengthen organizational/institutional structures. We see these attempts as furthering destruction of community.