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Locality has suddenly emerged as one of the more popular ideas in social science, especially in sociology, geography, urban and regional studies, and political science. A content analysis might reveal the term vying for place with structure, and cause, if not yet approaching the use levels of class, status or gender. But it is an infuriating idea. It is one that seems to signify something important, and indeed most people seem to know-roughly-what it signifies for them. Yet few would care to explain what locality (or is it a locality or even the locality) actually is. Even fewer, I suspect, would agree on the result-even if there was one.