"It is important to realize that communities like these are not physical but symbolic entities, constructed for a complex mix of reasons around affinities rather than visible borders, which means they are notoriously hard to pin down as an identifiable thing, a stable group, or a discourse with explicit defining features. In fact, the most significant feature of a community is not what or where it is (with its shifting features and overlapping boundaries) but how it functions," (Flower, 10).

So, where is the public? The quote above seems to fit in with Dewey's concern that the public is something that needs to found. In this case, Flower offers a description of community that also identifies how to find it. A place to start may be what affinities can cause a community to gather around them.

Flower states,"The community literacy I am hoping to document is an intercultural dialogue with others on issues that they identify as sites of struggle," (Flower, 19).

These "sites of struggle" are approached by community members in order to solve them. Can this process create a community? "Community literacy happens at a busy intersection of multiple literacies and diverse discourses. It begins its work when community folk, urban teens, community supporters, college-student mentors, and university faculty start naming and solving problems together," (Flower, 19). Thus enters Dewey's idea of inquiry, which allows allows these problems to be solved.

But the definition of community can become more complicated especially when trying to distinguish it from the term "public."

"And public, collaborative engagement often starts with but does not end with personal inquiry. Community literacy, then, attempts to move writers toward transformative action and collaborative engagement guided by a particular image ofpublic and rhetorical action. These choices can be defined by the ways this symbolic or rhetorical community tries to function," (Flower, 20).