The New Face of Community

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Permalink Reply by Ria Baeck on August 2, 2009 at 10:54pm

There is an audio section here - under Media... never used it though...
Ria

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Permalink Reply by Julie Denomme on July 23, 2009 at 6:56am

Hi Ulrich,

Excellent, excellent questions and ones that i share a passion about as well. I'm fairly new at this, not hosted or been part of a cafe yet but just loved the concept and the outcomes I've read about.

Not sure what the next steps would be to answer or start a dialogue around the questions you posed or if I'm meant to share it here of if you want to gather names.

I have the same questions and more as I noticed this year, for the first time, how my community is stuck in the same pattern and it is so entrenched that they have just accepted it(the fact that every 5 years our community gets almost shut down by a strike at the mine)...at least it feels like this...What would it take in order to create a new reality for us? All the questions you asked are relevant to my immediate community and then I start thinking about the world-wide communities...what would it take to create a win-win? a balanced model where the gap between those who have lots and those who have not is bridged?

I look forward to learning and please let me know if this is what I'm suppose to be doing....I'm going with the flow.
Julie from Ontario, Canada

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Permalink Reply by Julie Denomme on July 23, 2009 at 7:11am

ok...now I've had a chance to explore and know how this works.

As I was reading all the post I was reminded of a presentation I saw by Barb Marx who spoke about the evolution of our world and that everytime there's been a huge change, the species that couldn't adapt died or became extinct. She says that we are now in another transformational stage and that it will be crucial what occurs in the next while. I also see how communities have changed where everyone is for himself and that it's we often hear people saying that they've been in their community for many years and still don't know their neighbours. I remember living in my community as a child where everyone knew everyone and helped each other out. Scarcity mentally has taken over. I think it is why the "universe"(not wanting to offend anyone) has created natural phenomena to force us to come together. Everywhere where a disaster occurs, the community is then forced to come together...not sure if it's sustained over time but my thinking is I don't want to wait until a disaster occurs. I am loving this discussion...thanks everyone!

Warmest,
Julie

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Permalink Reply by Debra Debozy on July 23, 2009 at 8:31am

Thousands of thanks to you, Julie. You make several very vital observations and comments here. I see "everyone (being) for himself", or self-centeredness, as the great disease of humankind, wouldn't you agree? And the great paradigm shift would make self-centeredness the great blessing......here's how. We have arrived at a time in our evolutionary process where self-centeredness means "gimme, gimme, gimme". With a shift in perspective, we plainly see that "if the community experiences wellness, then I have a greater chance of experiencing wellness" (because I'm surrounded by it), therefore, let me seek individual wellness and pass it on to the community in order for it to be fed back to me. I don't know if I'm being clear here, because I'm excited by these insights and ideas.

Wellness to you.......

Debbie

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Permalink Reply by Ulrich Soeder 13 hours ago

Hi Julie,

thank you for joining this discussion and I apologize to comment your input so late.
I like your comment on the role of disasters in creating community! We had a great flood in the city of Dresden 7 years ago. it was August, and the river which has a normal level of 1,50 meters had a level of 9,40 meters. That was a lot of water.

This natural disaster had set free many, many spontaneous initiatives of help, and people from all over Germany (from former Eastern and Western parts) came together to help. I heard from some people afterwards that somehow they miss the catastrophy because the sense of community that was palpable during the days of the flood, while life had gotten back to normal since then.

My thinking is that these natural challenges create a strong shared purpose that otherwise is lost most of the time.

If we don't want to wait for another of these disasters (don't we have enough of them already: global warming, extinction of species, water scarcity, ...) what can we do NOW?

In the book on »Presence« by Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer et al., they talk about the idea of a requiem scenario, put forth by Daniel Quinn in his novel Ishmael.
»With man gone, will there be hope for gorilla?«

If we confront ourselves with the possible extinction of our own and other species, could that help in reframe our collective thinking and getting to a shared purpose?
Could that kind of question be not a sign of ego inflation (Superman will save the world ...), but a tool for orienting awareness and setting of a compass?

I know that working on one's own death is one of the most powerful ways for individual life to get an ultimate sense of purpose and inquire into the question: Why am I here? Personal (health) crisis can be turned in opportunities in this respect as well.

Could that be a tool for communities too?

Best wishes, Ulrich

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Permalink Reply by Robert 'Rob' Benn on July 24, 2009 at 4:10pm

go Julie go!
conversations on-line - don't question just contribute - the computer looks after letting everyone keep up and have a turn.

rob in Medicine Hat, Canada

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Permalink Reply by Robbi Lankin on July 23, 2009 at 7:13am

I enjoyed reading all your questions as it is very current material for me to look into ...NOW. This queston of
community. Personally, I am on a quest for this kind of "meaningful community" where there is more possibility;
an ongoing sense/adventure of a non-separate life together and a undercurrent or thread of shared values, moments created, moments shared and moments birthed that offer openings to a more creative, soul-provoking and sustaining LIFE for participants, for member, for individuals and for the WHole.

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Permalink Reply by Charles M. Savage on July 24, 2009 at 12:20pm

What a lively "community" already and our conference hasn't even started (yes it has!).

So many good thoughts here - and Juanita, I am particularly touched by your reflection on your parents community (not network). Wow - powerful.

With the East India Company long ago, we moved from living in small geographic "communities" and began living in more impersonal and competitive "associations." We might have gotten material wealth, but a deep price. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_T%C3%B6nnies

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Permalink Reply by Charles M. Savage on July 24, 2009 at 12:21pm

So much of what's been said fits so nicely with the intent of our European Salon:

Intent of the European Salon – October 16-19, 2009 in Austria

To host a sustainable gathering space in Europe for dialogue and change practitioners of diverse professional backgrounds
• using different modes of knowing for an in-depth exploration
• of the kind of communities we need to build in order to face today’s global urgent challenges, and
• the roles of dialogue and leadership in inspiring, coordinating and effecting individual and collective action.
Summarized by Ulrich Soeder for our team

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Permalink Reply by Ria Baeck on July 25, 2009 at 1:02pm

Ulrich, and maybe Amy,
Could you say more about what you mean with New Face of Community? It is probably hard to describe, but right now it doesn't have any meaning for me... maybe a starting point is saying what in your mind it is not? Just as a start?

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Permalink Reply by Ulrich Soeder on July 28, 2009 at 2:09am

Hi Ria,

I am still on holidays, but checking emails and internet from time to time.
The New Face of Community?
During the preparations for the now called European Salon in Autumn, we had the idea to ask:
Who would we like to be in contact, who should be in our circle of friends?
What might be some common caracteristics of these people? And in what kind of topics they might be interested to join an event (that might be a node in a ongoing fabric of relationship), while so many intersting events are happening all over the place?
We came up with three guesses for a common denominator: Dialogue, leadership, and community.

Community. We are discussing if it should be one face or many faces, one community or many communities. This discussion will be ongoing until the European Salon itself, and afterwards.

What are the most pressing challenges humanity is facing right now? How can we as humanity answer these challenges? What kind of communities do we need to leverage these big questions? These questions might be beyond profit – for some. The solutions might be beyond competition – for others.

Our intent is to create a platform in Europe where we can learn together with people from different theoretical and practical backgrounds how to best address these questions. The New Face of community – my own thinking is that we have to create a new kind of community together. The times for strong leaders might be over. How can we create a living community where we can explore the deeper grounds of diversity? How can we make this kind of community visible? That is what for me means searching for the face of this community. Or again, faces of diverse communities.

Ria, thanks very much for your question.

Our intent is to initiate all kinds of dialogues and conversations around these topics. Some of these conversations can occur online, but we are convinced that the face to face aspect in creating lasting communities is crucial, as well.

What I see happening here is just the kind of conversation we had in mind! We don't have the answers yet.

Albert Einstein once has been asked what he would do to solve an existential problem and he had only one hour to do this.
His reply was: I'd take fifty minutes to find the right question.

In this spirit, one aspect of this discussion around the New Face of Community might be: Asking good questions that initiate vibrant conversations that lead to orchestrated action ...

Is this a start?

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Permalink Reply by Ria Baeck on July 28, 2009 at 6:03am

As a quick reply to this: What would be the question that Dialogue, Leadership and Community would be the answer for?
And what would be the question that brings Dialogue, Leadership and Community to a new synergy?

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