#Seed016: Community Building Blocks
#Seed016: Community Building Blocks
Four possible pillars that a community builder can use to establish a community
This piece is not a cookie-cutter claim for a community building roadmap, but rather an exploration of the ways communities are formed, sustained, and transmitted from generation to generation. Long-time community builders have the potential to increasingly fall into the trap of myopic problem-solving, forgetting about a community’s larger vision and direction. I abide by the philosophical principle of the Haudenosaunee of Seven Generations: our world is shaped by decisions that took place seven generations ago and the choices we make today will shape the world seven generations from now. A community includes not only those currently living, but both the ancestors and the unborn.
However, communities must still be formed, sustained, and renewed. The Prophet Muhammad, may the light of God continue to nourish his soul, taught: “Every generation, God will bring someone who will renew the community’s way of life.” In Arabic, this renewal is referred to as tajdīd. This prophetic promise teaches us that communities tend to stagnate and that renewal is necessary to reinvigorate its life and potency. I also believe that community renewal is not restricted to the Islamic faith but rather something that is experienced in all communities. Community builders and shapers tend to appear in times of need and desperation, bringing hope back to communities.
This piece explores a few building blocks for a community to become fertile ground for tajdīd and how everyone in a community plays a role in maintaning its life and vitality during the valleys between the peaks of renewal.
Block one: Scale
A common mistake when thinking about community is not defining its scale. If we think that any grouping of people can form a community then there will be as many definitions of community as there are people. Ironically, this loose understanding of community actually breaks down community bonds. If we can't agree on what brings us together then we are most likely not going to come together. This is why community building necessitates a shared framework, and I advance the idea that this framework should be centered around the concept of scale. In Small is Beautiful, E.F. Schumacher writes,
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology toward the organic, the gentle, the elegant and beautiful.”
Applied to community building, we need to think about how to orient a community towards what he calls the organic, the gentle, the elegant and beautiful. This is why I return to the question of scale. If we design communities to be big and complex, then we lose that sense of reciprocity. As groupings of people become increasingly complex, people tend towards polarization and violence. A common ground can no longer be found in a large scale system of individuals. David Fleming offers a model of Groups and Group Sizes in Lean Logic that is worth considering. Here is a summary and understanding of the reciprocal exchange (mu’amalat) that exists between these groups.
Small Group (up to 5-6 people): Families and household group. Members provide services for each other without expectation of reciprocal exchange. Individuals’ own interests are essentially the same as those of the group.
Sympathy Group (up to about 12-15 people): Extended family and close friends. Members also provide services for each other without expectation of reciprocal exchange. Members from sympathy group move back and forth into small group.
Neighbourhood (up to 500 people): Large group defined by geographical area, usually within a 15-minute walk radius. Community membership requires cooperation and services, but contributions vary. Since deals are never completely closed, they leave a benign, bonding, network of mutual obligation.
Community (up to 5,000 people): Intentional community, village, or place of worship. When goods and services are supplied, this sets up an obligation which must be repaid (balanced). But these need not necessarily be money deals, nor the “best” deals: gifts, cooperation on projects and delayed completion sustain a network of obligation.
County (a group of communities, small enough to reflect local knowledge and represent local needs): Buyers and sellers go for the best deal, and deals are closed, with no obligation remaining. At the same time, the county is vital for networking, sharing ideas, and mutual aid between communities, including representation at national level.
Nation: (So long as they comprise a modular panarchy of groups of the scale suggested, the size of nations may vary widely): Although negative exchange exists at this level, interaction is mainly cultural and political. The nation affirms identity and keeps the peace. There is potential for encounters at national level to mature into any of the smaller-scale reciprocities.
Defined group sizes provide a useful framework to understand the nature of our interactions and exchanges. In my community building experience, I’ve often seen misunderstandings and mismanaged expectations, especially when it comes to the differences between the sympathy group, neighbourhood and community. I’ve seen people join intentional communities, expecting to find a group of close friends (sympathy group) only to leave dissapointed. Sure, friendships can be made within a community, but that requires mutual effort, intimate exchange, consistency, and proximity. Our question then becomes: how can we facilitate the pathway within a community for people to form more intimate groups?
Block two: Proximity
Another factor that must be considered as a building block to community is distance. It is no coincidence that the adoption of the automobile coincided with the rise of the nuclear family. Ironically, our need for speed simultaneously expanded and contracted our world. Great distances could now be traveled in less time, but we became increasingly isolated from our neighbours and communities. For communities to be built and sustain, we need to consider proximity.
I believe that in an ideal world, there would be no difference between a neighbourhood and a community. At the centre we would find a common space, most likely a sacred space, where the community regularly congregates. As people walk to and fro this space, there are countless opportunities for unexpected encounters. But we aren’t in an ideal world, so we need to think about what kind of distance is appropriate when it comes to community building. answer lies in the community's ability to congregate. Sustaining a “network of obligation” requires regular interactions. In terms of proximity, this means that a community should be able to congregate regularly at least three times a week. In my experience, this is the minimum to build trust among individuals and facilitate the development of close friendships.
Block three: Production
People tend to disengage in a community when they don’t find their place. Everyone has something to offer and a resilient and thriving community is a ground for people to hone their skills and produce goods and services for one another. Production can take many forms but it’s important to take a whole systems approach to community building. From an economic perspective, a community should strive to be a self-reliant closed-loop system that provides for its members and trades its surplus. A whole system community should include at minimum the following:
Food producers (e.g. farmers, grocers, cooks)
Tradespeople (e.g. carpenters, electricians, plumbing, mechanics)
Education (e.g. daycare providers, teachers, scholars)
Rights of passage (birth, marriage, death)
Knowledge managers (librarians, administrators, information technicians)
Health care providers (physicians, natural health practitioners, pharmacists, dentists, mental health counselors)
Artists (painters, musicians, playwrights, poets)
Professionals (engineers, architects, lawyers, accountants)
A community then should take stock of its members by creating a database with all the skills it can offer to each other. It then creates opportunities for members to exchange gifts and to cooperate projects. This process not only supports a community to become more self-reliant but also exchanges skills and knowledge. A community can then start to sell its surplus to the county (e.g. establishing a farmer’s market, running a daycare, offering legal services, etc.). This surplus is then reinvested into the community
Block four: Trust
When thinking about trust, I’d like to explore the idea of indebtedness. The Oxford Dictionary gives us two definitions for indebtedness:
the position of owing money to other countries, organizations or people
the feeling of being grateful to somebody/something for their help, advice, influence, etc.
I’ve always thought about the difference between being in debt and being indebted. Having experienced both, it seems like owing money to a bank is worlds away from owing money to a friend. Let me explain. When a friend lends another friend money, that relationship is built on mutual trust. The indebted friend is grateful to have received a loan from the other. And that feeling instills a moral imperative to pay it back. Even after having paid back the loan, that person remains indebted to their friend for the kind gesture of lending, without causing hardship on the borrower. On the other hand, a bank will lend money not based on trust but based on a credit score (which has replaced trust). There is no sense of mutual love and respect. The borrower simply wants to pay back that loan, not because of a moral imperative to do so, but to maintain a credit score. In the first example, there is a relationship of trust, while in the second, there is a relationship of transaction.
A community fosters that sense of trust between its members. Institutionally, this is what a community bank or credit union would offer a community. It would allow stagnant capital to be invested within the community and ensure that none of its members fall through the cracks. This is why trust is the final building block of a community. It creates the ground for people to truly help and support one another in all stages of life.
Drawing Inspiration
Every week, I share books, podcasts, films, and other resources that will support your journey as a community facilitator and builder.
Books
In preparing for my last two pieces, I’ve been going through Rob Hopkins’ The Transition Companion: Making your community more resilient in uncertain times. Written by the founder of the Transition movement, this books provides concrete examples of work that is going on around the world that is helping communities become more resilient. There are lots of inspiring stories in the book that can inspirer community facilitators and builders from all walks of life.