Communecology 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_development

Community development

Community development, often linked with Community Work or Community Planning, is often formally conducted by non-government organisations (NGOs), universities or government agencies to progress the social well-being of local, regional and, sometimes, national communities. Less formal efforts, called community building or community organizing, seek to empower individuals and groups of people by providing them with the skills they need to effect change in their own communities.



These skills often assist in building political power through the formation of large social groups working for a common agenda. Community development practitioners must understand both how to work with individuals and how to affect communities' positions within the context of larger social institutions.



At the intersection between community development and community building are a number of programs and organizations with community development tools. One example of this is the program of the Asset Based Community Development Institute of Northwestern University. The institute makes available downloadable tools to assess community assets and make connections between non-profit groups and other organizations that can help in community building. The Institute focuses on helping communities develop by "mobilizing neighborhood assets" — building from the inside out rather than the outside in.

Community building and organizing

In The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace, Scott Peck argues that the almost accidental sense of community that exists at times of crisis can be consciously built. Peck believes that conscious community building is a process of deliberate design based on the knowledge and application of certain rules. He states that this process goes through four stages:

1. Chaos: When people move beyond the inauthenticity of pseudo-community and feel safe enough to present their "shadow" selves. This stage places great demands upon the facilitator for greater leadership and organization, but Peck believes that "organizations are not communities", and this pressure should be resisted.


2. Emptiness: This stage moves beyond the attempts to fix, heal and convert of the chaos stage, when all people become capable of acknowledging their own woundedness and brokenness, common to us all as human beings. Out of this emptiness comes:


3. True community: the process of deep respect and true listening for the needs of the other people in this community. This stage Peck believes can only be described as "glory" and reflects a deep yearning in every human soul for compassionate understanding from one's fellows.

More recently Peck remarked that building a sense of community is easy but maintaining this sense of community is difficult in the modern world.



Community building can use a wide variety of practices, ranging from simple events such as potlucks and small book clubs to larger–scale efforts such as mass festivals and construction projects that involve local participants rather than outside contractors.



Community building that is geared toward citizen action is usually termed "community organizing." In these cases, organized community groups seek accountability from elected officials and increased direct representation within decision-making bodies. Where good-faith negotiations fail, these constituency-led organizations seek to pressure the decision-makers through a variety of means, including picketing, boycotting, sit-ins, petitioning, and electoral politics. The ARISE Detroit! coalition and the Toronto Public Space Committee are examples of activist networks committed to shielding local communities from government and corporate domination and inordinate influence.


Community organizing is sometimes focused on more than just resolving specific issues. Organizing often means building a widely accessible power structure, often with the end goal of distributing power equally throughout the community. Community organizers generally seek to build groups that are open and democratic in governance. Such groups facilitate and encourage consensus decision-making with a focus on the general health of the community rather than a specific interest group.


The three basic types of community organizing are grassroots organizing, coalition building, and "institution-based community organizing," (also called "broad-based community organizing," an example of which is faith-based community organizing, or "congregation-based community organizing").


If communities are developed based on something they share in common, whether that be location or values, then one challenge for developing communities is how to incorporate individuality and differences. Indeed, as Rebekah Nathan suggests in her book, My Freshman Year, we are actually drawn to developing communities totally based on sameness, despite stated commitments to diversity, such as those found on university websites. Nathan states that certain commonalities allow college students to cohere: “What holds students together, really, is age, pop culture, a handful of (recent) historical events, and getting a degree” (qtd. In Barrios 229). Universities may try to create community through all freshman reads, freshman seminars, and school pride; however, Nathan argues students will only form communities based on the attributes, such as age and pop culture, that they bring with them to college. Nathan’s point, then, is that people come to college and don't expand their social horizons and cultural tolerance, which can prevent the development of your social community.

"CAP and Trade"

a 3P proposal in progress:

Community Access* Project

and

Barter Market


What we want the community to have access to is the means to express itself back to itself.
a ground floor idea would be a Public Access videography setup.
another would be a community internet server with free web-hosting. or a sliding scale for that matter. no sense in demonizing economics while the capitalist system is still in full force, eh?

On that note, the barter setup would be a system that hosts not only open trade and consignment markets, but apprenticeship* and service exchange programs as well.

- link the two together with weekly potlucks/presentations.

encourage outreach!
seek out the voices of the community and convince them to share their stories.
give the people a forum - somebody's bound to come. who else can they bring to the table?

connect with all co-operative pre-existing programs, services and groups.
(must maintain careful balance; our forum has an agenda, and that agenda is all-inclusive. their agendas must not conflict with this or they will not be granted access to our forum.)

City of Seattle free web hosting for community groups

Question? can a low level analog TV signal be broadcast throughout a neighborhood without incurring the wrath of the FCC? or do they not give a toss since the digital TV switchover?


*tho many other A's would also apply: arts, appreciation, adventure, actualization, aid, adjustment, amnesty, assurance...

Why the Fed & The National Debt Are Illegal

adapted from a dispatch received by Paul Shockley

The National Debt is Illegal

The Federal Reserve bank, the privately owned Federal Reserve bank, was given authority to print Federal Reserve notes instead of the Treasury Department writing the Treasury Notes as directed by the U.S. Constitution.

These Federal Reserve notes were not printed to be given out to the economy, in the way as the Treasury Notes of the Treasury Department. Rather, they were loaned to the U.S. government and then circulated into society, and society was required to pay back interest on the IRS notes.

The Treasury Department has the potential for totally denouncing the Federal Reserve debt of 5 trillion dollars because it was illegal in the first place.

The Treasury Department in the U.S. Constitution is the only proper way of financing the nation

Congress, operating the Treasury Department has the right to mint and coin money, and set the value thereof.

The Federal Reserve was never given any such a right, even with the vote of the Congress, because Congress did not have the right to relegate its obligations to the Federal Reserve; therefore the entire debt of five trillion dollars, because it was illegal in the fist place, is not forcible in a technical sense.

The District of Colombia a Loop-Hole

Another factor is that because the U.S. government is situated in the District of Columbia, which is not part of the United States, it is essentially, according to Black's Law Dictionary, a different nation entirely. It is a Federal Nation, which rules over the District of Colombia. It has no real jurisdiction over the rest of the United States in a technical sense, and to pass laws taxing another country such as the United States is technically and legally in error.

You are being taxed by a foreign country. This is not right, if you look at it from a legal and technical sense. Therefore, in the creation of the United States with the Capitol situated in the District of Colombia, which was not a state, an error by the Founding Fathers occurred, but this error has had benefits for the banking cabals in that it has allowed them to break rules of the Constitution without fear of being charged for treason, because these entities are not operating from within the United States, they are operating from a different country.

Thus, they can pass off their obligations to a Federal Reserve board, a Federal reserve bank; they can make rules of taxation against the masses, which would be constitutionally prohibited. It is indeed a situation in which the banking cabals took total advantage of the loopholes, or the mistake by the Founding Fathers of creating the seat of the government in a non-state.

Once the Federal Reserve Bank was created, people of the government needing money would only borrow from the Federal reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve bank only had to go to the Treasury Department and get money printed at printing costs, and then loaned the money out at full face value, thus making enormous profits and putting this nation into enormous debt.

National Debt Not a Legal Debt

The debt that is known as the National Debt of so many trillion dollars is simply the result of borrowing from the Federal Reserve Bank the money that the Treasury Department prints for them, which is used to print for the country. In other words, instead of being printed for the United States, it is printed for the foreign bankers and the United states borrows from them and owes them the National Debt.

The National Debt is so high now that your grandchildren will never be able to pay it off

This country went bankrupt in 1933, removing the gold standard from the dollar, and this country will be again further bankrupted, even though it has been operating on Federal Reserve notes.

These Federal Reserve notes have been used in such a wasteful manner that all the borrowed money from the Federal Reserve, that is creating the national Debt, has not worked to restore a solid economy for this country.

According to Law, National Debt is Null & Void

In accordance with the law in the Western world, which has come down from Rome through England and into the United States:

Any contract, any obligation, financial or otherwise, which is based on fraud and misinterpretation or illegal activity, is null and void from the beginning.

Because the Federal Reserve Act was illegal according to the Constitution, and because the loaning of money by an illegal foreign bank to the United States government and its people and projects is based on a banking scam that was originally illegal, then the debts that were brought about from such loans, are themselves illegal.

Essentially, this country is bankrupt several times over, and the only way that it can be made whole in a legal sense is when people recognize that the law suggests that anything, any debt, any contract, any activity of partnership between entities which is based on fraud from the beginning, is null and void.

With this understanding, the National Debt could be and should be declared null and void

Communecology 3

Sense of Community

In a seminal 1986 study, McMillan and Chavis identify four elements of "sense of community": membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection.


Membership includes five attributes:

• boundaries
• emotional safety
• a sense of belonging and identification
• personal investment
• a common symbol system

Influence works both ways: members need to feel that they have some influence in the group, and some influence by the group on its members is needed for group cohesion.


Integration and fulfillment of needs
Members feel rewarded in some way for their participation in the community.


Shared emotional connection
The "definitive element for true community," it includes shared history and shared participation (or at least identification with the history).


They give the following example of the interplay between these factors:

Someone puts an announcement on the dormitory bulletin board about the formation of an intramural dormitory basketball team. People attend the organizational meeting as strangers out of their individual needs (integration and fulfillment of needs). The team is bound by place of residence (membership boundaries are set) and spends time together in practice (the contact hypothesis). They play a game and win (successful shared talent event). While playing, members exert energy on behalf of the team (personal investment in the group). As the team continues to win, team members become recognized and congratulated (gaining honor and status for being members), Influencing new members to join and continue to do the same. Someone suggests that they all buy matching shirts and shoes (common symbols) and they do so (influence).

Spirit, Trust, Trade, and Art

This article revisits the theory of sense of community originally developed in 1976 and subsequently presented by McMillan and Chavis (1986).

It extends the principles offered by McMillan and Chavis.

The same four elements remain but are rearranged and renamed as follows:

Spirit, Trust, Trade, and Art. Presently, I view Sense of Community as a spirit of belonging together, a feeling that there is an authority structure that can be trusted, an awareness that trade, and mutual benefit come from being together, and a spirit that comes from shared experiences that are preserved as art."

Sense of Community - David W. McMillan

http://www.drdavidmcmillan.com/article-2/

Outsourcing Citizenship

"In the war against the middle-class the government has been outsourcing jobs for decades. Now the government is going one step further. They are outsourcing citizenship to bring corporate citizens into their constituency, and give them the rights that go with it. This country started with an agreement between citizens and leaders. Over time we have evolved into shareholders (all shareholders are not equal) and owners. Our Constitutional rights as citizens have been stripped away while the Constitutional rights of corporations have grown. Today, a corporation has the same value as a natural citizen and made the law-of-the-land by the Supreme Court. This corporate citizen acts like a natural citizen. It looks to the government for the conditions to be productive so it can continue to grow.

Corporate citizens have become a weapon in the war against the middle-class. They can be used to take away the power of the vote form the middle-class. Corporate citizens can get congressman to listen to them and ignore the voice of the voter. This is why all polls in America show the government completely out of step with the majority of its natural citizens in every sector in society. On healthcare, education, taxes, war, environment and a host of others the people and the government are not on the same page. It’s not the government following the will of the people. Instead, it’s the government doing the bidding of its corporate citizens by writing legislation to legalize the assault on unions and teachers.

But, the needs of a citizen and the needs of a corporation are not the same. Natural citizens need and want opportunity and means to be successful and happy. They want government to provide a level playing field for all. Corporate citizens want and need control of the market to maximize profits. The natural citizen wants to live the American Dream and retire while the corporate citizen will be struggle to grow into an empire- builder. Natural citizens used to say their thanks with a handshake. The corporate citizen says thanks with a cash contribution.

The only weapon of the natural citizen is being taken away. He’s being disarmed. But, it’s not his guns he’s losing. What is being taken away is his VOTE. Given to those with citizenship, by the Constitution. The vote – the most effective weapon of the citizen to force the government to listen to him, is being given to corporations. Today their votes are meaningless. They have been made meaningless by a political system driven by money. Who can own the most government? A citizen’s vote has no political value to a congressman, he can’t put it in his war chest. In the battle between the natural citizens and the corporate citizens you only have to look at D.C. and see who represents who. There are thousands and thousands of these corporate citizens. The lobbyists and the think tanks and the media are grafting themselves onto the three branches of the government. It’s Ike’s worst nightmare.

Presidents throughout my lifetime have initiated foreign wars without the approval of the Congress. So why doesn’t Congress take back its power? Since all wars are now political the Congress would rather the White House start the war. The Congress will manage them. With war so profitable for corporate citizens why would they ever want to limit such a money making product? They wouldn’t. That’s why war is no longer a few pages every couple of hundred pages in history books. War is a part of our daily lives.
The government doesn’t have to be afraid. Votes don’t matter anymore.

Hoa binh"

I can't seem to find an originating source for this, but it pops up in the comments of a couple different articles on commondreams.org.

“It Takes a Whole Village to Raise a Child”

The Importance of Community Partnerships

Norm Green

1. Why should the community including business partners be more involved with education?

Noel Dempsey, Minister for Education and Science, Ireland, and Chair of the 2004 Meeting of OECD Education Ministers wrote, “These are important times for education in all the member countries of the OECD. The never ending search for competitive advantage in the global knowledge economy has led all public policy-makers to focus on education as a key factor in strengthening competitiveness, employment and social cohesion.”
This is an inevitable consequence of the increasing complexity of all our economies. Indeed, the pace of technological change worldwide is now so fast that, to a large extent, we must plan for the unknown. Mr. Dempsey goes on to say, “The only certainty is that education needs to drive these changes. If it does not, then we are all in trouble and we will fail our citizens.”
As we face the challenges of the 21st century, our success as nations, both economically and socially is tied to education. Of course, we want kids who can read and write and do math… the old fundamental skills. We also want them to be literate, culturally enlightened and environmentally aware. Instead of just developing the old fundamentals, we need to go forward, to define a new set of higher order skills suited for the information age and support schools so that they can teach them to their students. We must understand that because this new age is so challenging and the skills demanded of its citizens so new, that we can not expect that teachers can do what is needed without support.

Indeed, the old African proverb is so true, “It takes a village to raise a child.” And of course every village is confronted by the fiscal reality of escalating educational costs. The costs, which will continue to rise as the pressure to put more multi media technology into the schools, grows. The challenge for every nation is to rethink education by looking at the roles and responsibilities of all members of the community to contribute both opportunity and resources to the schools so that they can do the job expected by society.

2. How can partnerships benefit schools and the community partners?

For too long, schools have closed their doors to the community around them: but, times have changed. The world has become the classroom, as students connect to it each day through the music they listen to or the Internet they use. Being connected is their life, thus, to be unconnected to the communities they live in, makes no sense. There is a vast reservoir of opportunity sitting there, waiting to be used by the schools, in ways that benefit student learning. Those involved in community partnerships have identified six key benefits for the schools. These include:

1. Bridging the gap between parents, business and the community

2. Reinforcing school and student roles in a healthy and safe community

3. Improving public relations and communications

4. Developing connections for teachers and students to extend their learning

5. Generating partnerships to enhance student preparation to become better employees and citizens

6. Expanding opportunities to bring relevant learning situations into the classroom

An educational partnership can also have many benefits to community partners. Business and community organizations already involved in school partnerships report that their organizations benefit through increased staff morale, a sense of real learning accomplishment, and an enhanced public image through a demonstration of community responsibility. So both gain; schools have support in their attempts to develop competent adults for the 21st century and the community connects with future citizens and workers. To create such win-win situations, each of the players at school and in the community must understand and accept the role they must play.

3. What role can businesses play?

If businesses want to enhance their ability to compete, then they need to support the development of workplace skills, and to do that they must start putting their money and support were it will make the most difference. It’s admirable to support research and to build facilities for colleges and universities, to create what has been called elite universities, but businesses should remember that a very large number of young people will not benefit from their largesse. It’s time for corporate giving, whether in cash or in kind, to extend to the school system where the need is just as great.†
In addition to opening their coffers, companies can and must open their doors to students during their school years. Summer employment, job fairs, and mentoring relationships are just some of the ways that businesses can help kids to appreciate the kinds of jobs that are available, the kind of life-style they support and the kind of skills they must develop in order to qualify.

4. What role must educators play?

Obviously, teachers also have an enormous stake and role to play in this process. If schools are seen to be more relevant and responsive, the teaching profession, much maligned in recent years, will recover much needed respect and stature. Still, for some, needed changes may be tough to digest. Here I am thinking of things like welcoming outsiders, who are not certified teachers, into the classroom, developing networks into the employer community, spending time, even summers, learning about new curriculum changes, developing new competencies. All of these will be add-ons to already busy schedules.

We already expect a lot from our teachers, and, in the future, we will expect even more. But, we can’t just continue telling teachers to work harder, longer, and smarter and expect to get results. The job of teachers is not to produce workers, rather it is to produce thinkers who can work and to do that they will need the support of all members of the community including business partners. Let’s recognize that the community will have to add resources to the system to give teachers the tools they need to meet the expectations of their community and when they do, we should recognize and reward their efforts.

5. How does the Monchengladbach project fit into this partnership concept you have outlined?

The Monchengladbach programme is one such project where community partners have come together to provide support for the development of teachers and principals so that they can better teach their students. This partnership has been formed by members of the community including principals, teachers, city government, service organizations like the Rotary Club, businesses and the Ministry of Education in North Rhine Westphalia to create opportunities for teachers and principals. This project was designed to provide training for educators so that they might add to their skills those teaching strategies that will help students achieve at higher levels and develop communication, problem solving and teamwork skills. This programme, now in its second year, would not have been possible without the commitment and support of men and women of MG who felt that they had to do something to strengthen education in their community. Teachers have attended training in the evening and on Saturday, the partners have provided the funding and community support. Each has had to step out of previously defined roles to work together to create something that would benefit students.

I think the options for constructive involvement from employers in education are limited only by the imagination of teachers, administrators, students and the community. I think it is important to echo the sentiments of both educators and community members that the rationale for business involvement should have everything to do with helping kids to make wise career and learning choices. Other concerns such as developing brand loyalty whether in soft drinks or computer operating systems should not enter the picture. The issue is our kids, our competitiveness, and our country. †

6. Conclusion

Finally, I believe that business leaders must become far more vocal and effective advocates for the public education system. We hear them loud and clear about tax reform, health care and deregulation, but their voices fade when it comes to public education. Why is this? One reason, I suspect, is that many send their children to private schools. Of course, that’s a choice they are free to make, but in the process, if they lose touch with the schools, the schools lose a powerful advocate. That is why partnerships need to be formed that develop on-going working relationships between schools and interested individuals, businesses, government, labour, community organizations and other educational institutions.
Partnerships are win-win situations that serve the identified needs of the school as well as the needs of the community partner(s). Perhaps most importantly, partnerships can put business leaders back in touch with the school system and remind them that today’s students are tomorrow’s citizens and their future employees.†

http://www.kooperatives-lernen.de

Communecology 4

Social Capital

via Wikipedia

If community exists, both freedom and security may exist as well.
The community then takes on a life of its own, as people become free enough to share and secure enough to get along.
The sense of connectedness and formation of social networks comprise what has become known as social capital.
Social capital is defined as:
"the collective value of all social networks and species (who people know) and the inclinations that arise from these works to do things for each other (norms of reciprocity)."



Social capital in action can be seen in all sorts of groups, including neighbors keeping an eye on each others' homes.
However, as Putnam notes in Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, social capital has been falling in the United States. Putnam found that over the past 25 years, attendance at club meetings has fallen 58 percent, family dinners are down 33 percent, and having friends visit has fallen 45 percent.
The same patterns are also evident in many other western countries. Western cultures are thus said to be losing the spirit of community that once were found in institutions including churches and community centers.


Sociologist Ray Oldenburg states in The Great Good Place that people need three places: 1) the home, 2) the office, and, 3) the community hangout or gathering place.

With this philosophy in mind, many grassroots efforts such as The Project for Public Spaces are being started to create this "Third Place" in communities. They are taking form in independent bookstores, coffeehouses, local pubs, and through many innovative means to create the social capital needed to foster the sense and spirit of community.