Re: Re: Anti-Social Americans | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Harry Pasternak (Harry_Pasternaktvo.org) | |
Date: 04 Aug 1995 03:13:00 GMT |
On 8/3/95 at 2:52 PM, cohousing-l [at] uci.com wrote: c> For me, the point is that neighborhood living for most Americans is c> very limited, not much communication, few shared potlucks and c> meals, almost never shared projects of any size. c> c> Except during disasters. In times of extreme stress and disaster, c> neghborhoods suddenly come together and people share everything and c> express their thoughts and feelings clearly and passionately to c> each other. Suddenly life becomes more soical, more real and for c> most people, those share moments of disaster are high points in c> their lives. c> c> It seems to me that life in other times was more interactive (more c> social), and that the modern industrial world has encouraged c> isolation and dependency upon outside institudions, rather than c> upon other people thru cooperation. c> c> I'd like to see our lives become more social in this sense of c> cooperation, shared communication, the tidbits of live, and of c> greater projects like barn-raisings. King During my 1/2 century of kicking around this planet, I have lived in a variety of neighborhoods; from middle class downtown homes with porches, the porchless suburbs, highrise, in dairy country, in the mountains, small town by the ocean etc. etc. and in two cohousing projects (one in 1978, and one in 1981). At the same time I have done a modest amount of vagabonding in the USA and less so in Europe. I have experienced a great deal supportive behaviour in most of the places I have lived. The best "social networking" environments were in the two middle class downtown neighborhoods that I lived in (followed by the two cohousing neighborhoods). The first downtown was experienced as a child (it was fantastic), the next major downtown neighborhood experience was as an adult, where I returned from suburbia just after separating from my marriage partner (you could not be divorced and live in suburbia at the time). So my own personal experiences parallel the scientific research that has been done in this field---I was a consult for the government in Ontario---my role was to "improve the quality of life" for about 150,000 people living in the new communities that were built all over Ontario (about 10 times the size of Texas)--- it led me to do a lot of primary and secondary research into the whole notion of supportive neighborhoods. I was amazed that the bureaucrats actually wanted me to use the research and come up with solutions to implement change---so I did. In summary, there are certain elements in the design of the homes and the neighborhoods that are required before natural "social networking" has the potential of taking place ---that doesn't mean it will always happen---it means it is more likely to happen than not. If these required elements are missing, it is more likely that the social networking will not happen or happen on a limited scale even when "social engineering" type of intervention is used (social workers, recreation leaders etc. etc. ) Harry - sent via an evaluation copy of BulkRate (unregistered).
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Anti-Social Americans Harry Pasternak, August 2 1995
- Re: Anti-Social Americans King Collins, August 3 1995
- Re: Anti-Social Americans Sofistic, August 3 1995
- Re: Re: Anti-Social Americans Harry Pasternak, August 3 1995
- RE: Anti-Social Americans Rob Sandelin, August 4 1995
- Re: Anti-Social Americans Fred H Olson WB0YQM, August 4 1995
- Re: Anti-Social Americans Fred H Olson WB0YQM, August 4 1995
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