Posts tagged community
Two First Things in Building Collective Action

By Michael Johnson

I have put 40 years into building and sustaining an urban intentional community of substantial size—the Ganas Community in Staten Island, NY. We began with seven, reached 100 in the 90s, and settled in at around 65 ever since. I have also studied collective action groups out in the regular world, especially worker co-operatives and solidarity economic groups.

So, do I have anything useful to pass on? I think so. At least a couple.

For me there is one lesson that stands out above all others in starting a community or collective action group: the group that starts and sustains the project has to learn how to talk to each other about the problems they have with each other.

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SocialWade Lee Hudsoncommuication, community Comment
A Network of Mutual Support Teams

Small mutual support teams that embrace shared values and principles can nurture self-development. In Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World, Tina Rosenberg reports that “from the affluent suburbs of Chicago to the impoverished shanties of rural India” mutual support teams have helped smokers stop smoking, teens fight AIDS, worshippers deepen their faith, activists overthrow dictators, addicts overcome addictions, and students learn calculus.[1]

Such teams could also help compassion-minded individuals set aside counter-productive tendencies and become more effective — and inspire politically inactive people to become more active. Those teams could serve as social greenhouses where we could develop our ability to relate as equals, create models, and strengthen our ability to help transform the world.

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SocialWade Lee Hudsonmutual support, community, personalComment
To Unite a Divided America, Make People Work for It

By Jonathan Holloway

If we Americans listened to one another, perhaps we would recognize how absurd our discourse has become. It is our own fault that political discussions today are hotheaded arguments over whether the hooligans storming the halls of the Capitol were taking a tour or fomenting an insurrection; if we broadened our audiences, perhaps we would see the fallacy of claims that all Republicans are committed to voter suppression and that all Democrats are committed to voter fraud.

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multi-sectorWade Lee Hudsonpolitics, community, patriotismComment
Creating Positive Community Information Exchange

In 2001, Hector E. Garcia attended a St. Paul meeting between a Minnesota immigrant group and the INS (Immigration & Naturalization Services — federal agency charged with handling immigration matters, which was converted after 9/11 into three separate departments — CIS, ICE and CBO). The meeting was one of a series of tense interactions between INS and the immigrant community in person and through the media. Hector observed that community members left angrier than when they arrived and no solutions had been identified.

After the meeting, Hector suggested to Curt Aljets, District Director of INS, and to a Pastor who spoke for the community that it was possible to attain more constructive results from such meetings. Hector, at that time, was MN/Dakotas District Director for NCCJ (National Conference for Community & Justice). He offered to hold an interactive session with Mr. Aljets' staff. Out of that session, evolved a group decision to start the Twin Cities Immigrant Community Roundtable.

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SocialWade Lee Hudsoncommunity, communicationComment