Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: consensus and majority vote

[cscheuer (cscheuer]

> The impression i've gotten is that almost all peoples have used consensus
> process, and that in many cases it actually has been in some formal
> setting such as a council.  

Community is often not restricted to a formally bounded group of
individuals (a neighborhood for example). Communities can be formed by
affiliations and activities, often geographical but not exclusively. 

The community impulse that initiates many cohousing communities, and other
efforts to increase community in our lives comes from somewhere in us. I
don't believe that impulse is new or unique,  I do believe it is a desire
to restore and nurture something important that we experienced at times and
in varying degrees  among family, friends or in our own histories, yet is
proving difficult to achieve in contemporary residential settings.  By and
large we have all experienced meaningful community on different levels
throughout our lives, but how many of us have participated in formal
consensus processes in those "communities"?

Chris Scheuer
Master of Science in Architecture

Research Assistant 
Center for Sustainable Systems
School of Natural Resources and Environment
University of Michigan
www.css.snre [at] umich.edu
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