The new social yearning is the desire for a secure place in social networks based on reciprocity, trust and mutual respect. Professor Gleeson suggests that this “social yearning” arises from new forces that have undermined traditional sources of security and moral certainty, including globalisation, economic liberalism, the decline of the welfare state, employment insecurity, cultural pluralisation, and surely the new permanent world war on terror. New industries and technologies have sprung forth to deliver commodities and lifestyles that respond to this new yearning for social ties and embeddedness. Australian governments have sensed the new communal yearning and have instated it as a high order policy value. They have also responded with concern to increasingly stark manifestations of socio-spatial polarisation and the emergence of poverty sinkholes and dysfunctional communities in cities and regions. Both factors have combined to elevate the political and institutional significance of “community’. In most jurisdictions, new programmatic foci have emerged to reflect the heightened public sector interest in community and to pursue better links between government and non government actors. There is evidence that state community agencies are turning their attention towards new urban developments and broadening their focus beyond social challenges in existing areas. The agenda is broadening to include an interest in community generation and not just community renewal.