Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Common House Use Proposal

[Wayne Tyson (landrest]

Moz and CoHo:

First, Moz, thank you for the famous quote; I have heard the converse, 
"Anecdote is the singular of data," but alas, had not been close enough to 
the famous in my "education" to be aware of it. Be assured, however, that I 
shall now use it with at least equal frequency, as I believe both to be 
true, as uncomfortable to logicians though that may be.

I should be most interested in the data, despite my bias.

In addition, I am equally curious about the electric engineering 
applications, and details such as to which part(s) of the anatomy to which 
it is applied, and, of course, data on its effectiveness.

Considering the enormous fall from grace that civilization has increasingly 
represented since the enslavement of plants and animals ten or twelve 
millennia or so ago, it should not be surprising that co-housing encounters 
difficulties of adjustment, nay, 'twoud be surprising to hear otherwise. 
That may be as precise an example of my point as I can come up 
with--applying more of the same (in yet greater measure!) via posted rules 
of behaviour does not seem to me to be consistent with seeking 
cooperation/co-operation in a co-housing setting. I had held out hope that 
co-housing was a hopeful sign that authoritarianism was on the wane . . . 
However, it is the direction of the trend that is important, not that my 
expectation of immediate gratification is satisfied at every prissy little 
turn.

WT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <list [at] moz.geek.nz>
To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 9:03 PM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Common House Use Proposal


> > Ah, good question. Data? Surely you jest.
>
> The plural of anecdote is not data, to give you the famous quote.
>
> > Just how would one go about gathering "data" on such a phenomenon?
>
> Well, we have a big group of cohousing communities here, most of which
> depend on (ongoing) volunteer labour for their existance. I think it would
> be relatively easy to gather data on them starting from this email list,
> should someone feel so inclined.
>
> I'm going to assume the question is "Why do people do voluntary work
> within their communities" or something similar. Please correct me if I'm
> wrong.
>
> A quick poke around the internet showed me a local journal that seems to
> focus on the subject "Australian Journal on Volunteering" as well as a
> bunch of papers on the subject. This paper looks at why, how and when
> people volunteer (at a very high level):
> http://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/webdata/resources/files/Briefing_Paper_4.pdf
> There are more detailed investigations.
>
> Off the top of my head I've read papers in psychology, economics, game
> theory, sociology and electric engineering on the topic. They all have
> interesting takes on what is a pretty fundamental part of society.
>
> What's interesting for me is the micro version of this that applies within
> a small community like a cohousing setup. Especially since the group I'm
> in continues to struggle to get people to volunteer (and we're still in
> the wishin'n'hopin stage).
>
> Moz
>
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