The concept of community is an extension of self-sufficiency.
Individual self-sufficiency is enhanced by connection to a community.
The communities' self-sufficiency is, in turn, enhanced by the
activity of the individuals that are a part of it. As David Korten
states it in When Corporations Rule the World (pg. 262): "Healthy
societies depend on healthy, empowered communities that build
caring relationships among people and help us connect to a particular
piece of the living earth with which our lives are intertwined.
Such societies must be built through local-level action, household
by household and community by community."
Community is dependent on our ability to belong and cooperate.
Robert Putnam, a Harvard University political scientist has called
this bonding "social capital" and it is required for
a community to survive. Social capital is the rich network of
nonmarket relationships built of trust and reciprocity among people
in a relationship. It is the day-to-day sharing of food, child
care, health concerns, care of elderly, education, entertainment
and spirit. The focus of community is on social, not money, exchange.
Sustainability of a community is related to its ecosystem as well
as its people connections. Healthy communities are environmentally
sustainable if their economies are able to meet three conditions:
1) the rates of use of renewable resources must not exceed the
rates at which the ecosystem is able to replace them, 2) the rates
of consumption or irretrievable disposal of nonrenewable resources
must not exceed the rate at which renewable substitutes are developed
and phased into use, and 3) the rates of pollution emission into
the natural environment must not exceed the rates of the ecosystem's
natural assimilative capacity. (Korten, pg. 272)
Communities form a nested set of relationships extending from
the household outward through the neighborhood, town/city, county,
region or state, to nation and finally the globe. With the forces
of globalization so strongly a part of our political and economic
system, it is essential to remember that communities are bottom-up
not top-down arrangements. People are sovereign -- government
and corporate rights spring from them. Communities may be informal
groupings of people or formalized as 'intentional communities,'
'co-housing,' 'ecovillages' or some other structure. Each level
seeks to achieve the optimal feasible ecological self-reliance,
especially in meeting basic needs for food security, adequate
shelter, clothing, health care and education. Strong community
structure allows representational and volunteer organizations
to play their role in defining the mission and influence of their
governmental units and forces of the 'money capital' driven market.
A strong civil society is able to meet local needs, make demands
on government, serve as watchdogs, and educate the public while
developing political skills.
Wendell Berry (UTNE Reader, March-April, 1995, pg. 71) offers
17 Practical Guidelines for sustaining a place-based community.
He says: "Supposing that the members of a local community
wanted their community to cohere, to flourish, and to last, they
would:
1) Ask what any proposed change or innovation will do to the community.
2) Include local nature within the membership of the community.
3) Ask how local needs might be supplied from local sources. 4)
Supply local needs first, before thinking about export. 5) Understand
the ultimate unsoundness of the industrial doctrine of "labor
saving" if that implies poor work, unemployment, or pollution
and contamination. 6) Develop properly scaled value-adding industries
for local products. 7) Develop small-scale industries and businesses
to support the local farm or forest economy. 8) Strive to produce
as much of own energy as possible. 9) Strive to increase earnings
within the community and decrease expenditures outside the community.
10) Circulate money within the local economy as long as possible
before paying it out. 11) Invest in the community to maintain
its properties, keep it clean, care for its old people and educate
its children. 12) Arrange for the old and the young to take care
of one another. 13) Account for costs that are now conventionally
hidden or 'externalized.' 14) Look into the possible uses of local
currency, community-funded loan programs, systems of barter and
the like. 15) Be aware of economic value of neighborliness --
as help, insurance and so on. 16) Be acquainted and connected
with community-minded people in nearby towns and cities. 17) Cultivate
urban consumers loyal to local products to build a sustainable
rural economy, which will always be more cooperative than competitive.The
concept of community is an extension of self-sufficiency. Individual
self-sufficiency is enhanced by connection to a community. The
communities' self-sufficiency is, in turn, enhanced by the activity
of the individuals that are a part of it. As David Korten states
it in When Corporations Rule the World (pg. 262): "Healthy
societies depend on healthy, empowered communities that build
caring relationships among people and help us connect to a particular
piece of the living earth with which our lives are intertwined.
Such societies must be built through local-level action, household
by household and community by community."
Community is dependent on our ability to belong and cooperate.
Robert Putnam, a Harvard University political scientist has called
this bonding "social capital" and it is required for
a community to survive. Social capital is the rich network of
nonmarket relationships built of trust and reciprocity among people
in a relationship. It is the day-to-day sharing of food, child
care, health concerns, care of elderly, education, entertainment
and spirit. The focus of community is on social, not money, exchange.
Sustainability of a community is related to its ecosystem as well
as its people connections. Healthy communities are environmentally
sustainable if their economies are able to meet three conditions:
1) the rates of use of renewable resources must not exceed the
rates at which the ecosystem is able to replace them, 2) the rates
of consumption or irretrievable disposal of nonrenewable resources
must not exceed the rate at which renewable substitutes are developed
and phased into use, and 3) the rates of pollution emission into
the natural environment must not exceed the rates of the ecosystem's
natural assimilative capacity. (Korten, pg. 272)
Communities form a nested set of relationships extending from
the household outward through the neighborhood, town/city, county,
region or state, to nation and finally the globe. With the forces
of globalization so strongly a part of our political and economic
system, it is essential to remember that communities are bottom-up
not top-down arrangements. People are sovereign -- government
and corporate rights spring from them. Communities may be informal
groupings of people or formalized as 'intentional communities,'
'co-housing,' 'ecovillages' or some other structure. Each level
seeks to achieve the optimal feasible ecological self-reliance,
especially in meeting basic needs for food security, adequate
shelter, clothing, health care and education. Strong community
structure allows representational and volunteer organizations
to play their role in defining the mission and influence of their
governmental units and forces of the 'money capital' driven market.
A strong civil society is able to meet local needs, make demands
on government, serve as watchdogs, and educate the public while
developing political skills.
Wendell Berry (UTNE Reader, March-April, 1995, pg. 71) offers
17 Practical Guidelines for sustaining a place-based community.
He says: "Supposing that the members of a local community
wanted their community to cohere, to flourish, and to last, they
would:
1) Ask what any proposed change or innovation will do to the community.
2) Include local nature within the membership of the community.
3) Ask how local needs might be supplied from local sources. 4)
Supply local needs first, before thinking about export. 5) Understand
the ultimate unsoundness of the industrial doctrine of "labor
saving" if that implies poor work, unemployment, or pollution
and contamination. 6) Develop properly scaled value-adding industries
for local products. 7) Develop small-scale industries and businesses
to support the local farm or forest economy. 8) Strive to produce
as much of own energy as possible. 9) Strive to increase earnings
within the community and decrease expenditures outside the community.
10) Circulate money within the local economy as long as possible
before paying it out. 11) Invest in the community to maintain
its properties, keep it clean, care for its old people and educate
its children. 12) Arrange for the old and the young to take care
of one another. 13) Account for costs that are now conventionally
hidden or 'externalized.' 14) Look into the possible uses of local
currency, community-funded loan programs, systems of barter and
the like. 15) Be aware of economic value of neighborliness --
as help, insurance and so on. 16) Be acquainted and connected
with community-minded people in nearby towns and cities. 17) Cultivate
urban consumers loyal to local products to build a sustainable
rural economy, which will always be more cooperative than competitive.<