Comments on: Community: An Essential Key to Human Flourishing http://hivethrive.com/2008/05/02/community-an-essential-key-to-human-flourishing/ Where Community Entrepreneurs Flourish Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:14:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Joe http://hivethrive.com/2008/05/02/community-an-essential-key-to-human-flourishing/#comment-18 Joe Sat, 03 May 2008 21:14:50 +0000 http://hivethrive.com/?p=51#comment-18 Great comments! Dorij, There is a fair amount of empirical evidence to support the idea that humans are social/emotional creatures and that we need healthy connections in order to flourish. (the psyche term is "attachment" which roughly means "emotional bond") Very important stuff to learn more about. I'll write more of the research results into future articles and hope that others who lurk here will throw their knowledge in too. ------------ David, It's great to have you here! Evan and I are TOTALLY with you on the "go local" movement. Much of our thinking so far about community entrepreneurs has been inspired by community-supported agriculture (CSA) and farmers markets. We'll be writing quite a bit about them. And, when we set up the ability for others to blog too, I hope you'll through you buck-and-a-quarter worth in and help us out. Best, Joe Great comments!

Dorij,

There is a fair amount of empirical evidence to support the idea that humans are social/emotional creatures and that we need healthy connections in order to flourish. (the psyche term is “attachment” which roughly means “emotional bond”)

Very important stuff to learn more about. I’ll write more of the research results into future articles and hope that others who lurk here will throw their knowledge in too.

————

David,

It’s great to have you here! Evan and I are TOTALLY with you on the “go local” movement. Much of our thinking so far about community entrepreneurs has been inspired by community-supported agriculture (CSA) and farmers markets. We’ll be writing quite a bit about them. And, when we set up the ability for others to blog too, I hope you’ll through you buck-and-a-quarter worth in and help us out.

Best,

Joe

]]> By: David Ploskonka http://hivethrive.com/2008/05/02/community-an-essential-key-to-human-flourishing/#comment-15 David Ploskonka Sat, 03 May 2008 12:27:29 +0000 http://hivethrive.com/?p=51#comment-15 Joe, Evan, love the site! (So nice to finally see what you look like) I think community is vitally important, both to people and the progressive movement. And I think you're right that people inherently want community. Couple points below. 1) Think about the shop local movement. While most people still love corporate chains (and are caught in Lacan's chains of dead desire ha, ha, ha) there is a strong movement towards local shopping and businesses. When and where people can--they will often use small businesses and restaurants. Think of the shift towards farmers markets. Farmers markets are on the rise despite all these massive chain grocery stores. Same with coffee shops and bookstores--people lament the fall out of local/community oriented shop in favor or corporate chains. 2) The right has a very strong network of communities in place already, you might have heard of them, they're called churches. The Left needs those networks. MoveOn has started holding regular potlucks for its members just to get together and socialize. The internet is good (facebook, care2) but I think you'll agree you need warm, flesh and blood human contact. While I am not a big fan of the book Break Through it does have a very sharp chapter on community and thoughts on a progressive community. 3) This is a bit off topic, but I just came across this group I think you might want to look at: <a href="http://www.americanenvironics.com/" rel="nofollow">American Environics</a> They... <blockquote>American Environics brings the tools of cognitive sciences, linguistics, and social psychology to evaluate cognitive models and narratives that shape the ways Americans view the world.</blockquote> Cheers and good luck. I'll be around. Joe, Evan, love the site!

(So nice to finally see what you look like) I think community is vitally important, both to people and the progressive movement. And I think you’re right that people inherently want community. Couple points below.

1) Think about the shop local movement. While most people still love corporate chains (and are caught in Lacan’s chains of dead desire ha, ha, ha) there is a strong movement towards local shopping and businesses. When and where people can–they will often use small businesses and restaurants. Think of the shift towards farmers markets. Farmers markets are on the rise despite all these massive chain grocery stores.
Same with coffee shops and bookstores–people lament the fall out of local/community oriented shop in favor or corporate chains.

2) The right has a very strong network of communities in place already, you might have heard of them, they’re called churches. The Left needs those networks. MoveOn has started holding regular potlucks for its members just to get together and socialize. The internet is good (facebook, care2) but I think you’ll agree you need warm, flesh and blood human contact. While I am not a big fan of the book Break Through it does have a very sharp chapter on community and thoughts on a progressive community.

3) This is a bit off topic, but I just came across this group I think you might want to look at:
American Environics
They…

American Environics brings the tools of cognitive sciences, linguistics, and social psychology to evaluate cognitive models and narratives that shape the ways Americans view the world.

Cheers and good luck. I’ll be around.

]]> By: dorij http://hivethrive.com/2008/05/02/community-an-essential-key-to-human-flourishing/#comment-14 dorij Sat, 03 May 2008 08:35:35 +0000 http://hivethrive.com/?p=51#comment-14 Type your comment here. Thank you so much for your 'grounding' post. For me, this sentence "Those who seek to transform their society find that they must work closely with others in a mutually supportive way." is of great interest to me. The one thing that I haven't seen science (or society) deal with yet (though I could be wrong) is humans as emotional beings. As you said, we are social animals, and [this is my part] one of our needs seems to be some kind of 'connection' with another/others which we trust will be generally empathetic: mutual lack of moral judgment (not discernment), respectful interaction, mutual space to make choices, mutual space for self-expression, the importance of not getting one's needs met at the expense of someone else's. This email is getting too long. I'll finish it another time. dorij I mean, that thing that makes two human beings NOT interchangeable. Type your comment here. Thank you so much for your ‘grounding’ post.
For me, this sentence “Those who seek to transform their society find that they must work closely with others in a mutually supportive way.” is of great interest to me.
The one thing that I haven’t seen science (or society) deal with yet (though I could be wrong) is humans as emotional beings. As you said, we are social animals, and [this is my part] one of our needs seems to be some kind of ‘connection’ with another/others which we trust will be generally empathetic: mutual lack of moral judgment (not discernment), respectful interaction, mutual space to make choices, mutual space for self-expression, the importance of not getting one’s needs met at the expense of someone else’s.
This email is getting too long. I’ll finish it another time.
dorij
I mean, that thing that makes two human beings NOT interchangeable.

]]>