Short essay on first 3 seminar readings
From Internet: Knowledge and Community
Stephanie Kallwass
Community and the Politics of Place by Daniel Kemmis, The Problem of place in America by Ray Oldenburg, From Hull House to Paseo Boricua: The Theory and Practice of Community Inquiry by Bertram Bruce, and Community and Technology by Douglas Schuler all circulate on one topic, the role and meaning of community. While they have different ideas for how to solve the U.S.A’s problem with developing communities, they all agree that there is a problem and it is much more important than most people think. They have common views on why this problem exists, such as isolation and consumerism and they also have very similar ideas of the core values a community needs in order to exist and function, education and experience.
While Isolation is brought up in all these articles, The Problem of Place in America does the most to explain modern day isolation. Oldenburg begins with the suburbs and describes a kind of isolation that I can most easily relate to. The American suburban house has been designed to fulfill all needs so that leaving it seems unnecessary. Both Problem of Place and New Community Networks touch on this idea of the corner pub. A warm welcoming place where people run into their friends; an environment that emanates community. This “corner pub” has been banished from our lives because of people’s reluctance to leave their homes and meet their neighbors. Private automobiles were also mentioned in both these articles as a hindrance to bringing community into our lives because they are an isolated means of getting from point A to B. Another reason for isolationism is stress. Problem of Place , New Community Networks, and From Hull House all mention the stress that is imposed upon people from living in these condition, and that just causes them to retreat more into themselves. In Community and the Politics of Place it is said, “We have largely lost the sense that our capacity to live well in a place might depend upon our ability to relate to our neighbors.”
Consumerism in these articles is portrayed in a negative light as a way to manipulate people and distract them from forming communities. Oldenburg describes consumerism as “the difference between loving someone for what they are and envying them for what they own.” Community and Politics of Place says, “It was precisely because consumers were totally autonomous from producers, precisely because they were acting solely upon their own ‘caprice,’ that the market worked in such a marvelous way.” It goes on to say that this way of dealing with people, keeping them separate, ensures stability, which is a harmful way of viewing human life especially when coming from those who hold power over the quality of our lives.
Education is preached abroad these articles as a staple for communities to function. Douglas Schuler says, “Education doesn’t necessarily mean schools, teachers, or other aspects for traditional institutions.” This reminds me of the PACHS school mentioned in From Hull House. The school relates all its learning activities to community building and social growth. The education talked about in Community and the Politics of Place is a little different, but the theme is still the same. Kemmis writes about Jefferson’s views on education as a means for people to “enable people to see (and then act upon) the common good.” “Education into citizenship” he called it. Knowledge allows people to understand the need to put individual interest aside and work for the betterment of the community Experience is what allows people to relate to one another and understand the importance of working together. The chapter Barn Raising, in Community and the Politics of Place is all about how important experiences are in order for people to understand how to work together and do work for the greater good. This is also repeated in From Hull House to Paseo Boricua when it is written, “We do not enter into a situation; we are integrated with it and continually re-construct it though livid inquiry. Our experiences occur both within us, influencing the formation of attitudes of desire and purpose.” It is through community building experiences that we understand the importance of cooperation and the results it can achieve.
Chapter six of Community and the Politics of Place mentions how people’s values are “deeply rooted in their backgrounds.” This is similar to From Hull house to Paseo Boricua. I felt the author neglected to attribute Paseo Baricua’s ability to form such a strong community to the fact that it is is essentially a Puerto Rican community and is centered around poverty and violence. I think them being of a foreign culture in America plays a much bigger role in their ability to relate and pull together than the writer suggests. He uses this house as a prime example of what community is capable of but forgets to mention that they have different struggles from the average American who has no outside country or identity to relate to his peers with. In New Community Networks, Schuler also says, “History is an integral part of communities--and hence its inhabitants--identity and character.”
Bruce does a good job of summing up our current situation when he wrote, “We might speculate that this is in response to a perceived atomization of society, in which families are reduced in size or fragmented, consumers are manipulated, and workers become alienated and insecure.” Human beings are social creatures that are losing their natural instincts from living in the cages called houses. Like animals raised in captivity, people are at risk of losing their social instincts. Our ability to form communities and live as the social organisms we are is being suppressed. All these articles agree that something must be done to change this, or the future of our social networks will be lackluster and boring.
