Economics, Politics and Community

"Recent economic writings have turned away from neo-classical models... they emphasise that successful economic government must recognize the significance of relations of interpersonal trust, local and community-based trading networks, collaboration amongst enterprises sharing a commitment to their particular geographical location."

"good governance must recognise the political importance of the patterns that arise out of complex interactions, negotiations and exchanges intermediate' social actors, groups, forces, organisations, public and semi-public institutions." 

Communities occur in many different shapes, sizes, forms and have a variety of communal similarities that create the interaction and bonds. Whether it be geographical location, religious beliefs, recreational activities etc politics must recognise structures and individual relationships in order provide for them. This too must also apply to design. Without an understanding of communities, and individual needs, how can we design for an audience. Design must engage with individuals in order to to be successful and should be the product of the communities needs not the designers assumptions of what is required.

'Community' History - Aristotle and Alistair MacIntyre

Alistair MacIntyre a 'revolutionary Aristotelian' and writer of the philosophical and ethically inspired book 'After Virtue' has a negative view on modern society. He relates today's society with the dark ages of the end of the Roman Empire. He states that although "the barbarians are no longer waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for some time." He blames social degradation on governance and believes that a single and united conception of 'good' (an Aristotelian idea) is what is required in order to revert society back to a civilised state of affairs. 

MacIntyre believes that communities should be the controlling force that judges individuals actions on their path towards 'good'. Communities should exercise the values and qualities of being 'good' and they should form the standard to which an individual can be judged. MacIntyres ideal of 'good' and the role it plays with in a community is very similar to Aristotle's 'Eudaimonia". Eudiamonia is a state translated in the context of virtue ethics as 'Human flourishing' or 'happiness'. Aristotle like MacIntyre believe that the pursuit of 'eudaimonia' and the 'good' will result in a mutually more beneficial community. Aristotle like Plato before him state that the pursuit of happiness and human flourishment can and should only be exercised trough the pursuit of 'human community'. 

The Emergence of Community

Nikolas Rose states in his book 'The Powers of Freedom' that the ideal of community has emerged as an important policy through new political approaches from the likes of Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher. Such policies have been seen to be adopted throughout the western world. This ideology behind neo-liberal individualism is to create new "economic arrangements, social institutions and politcal mecahnisms" which are designed for the individual and work through individuals. Rose states that "this hegemony has not been uncontested" but such attacks have been "inaccurate in their analysis" and "deficient in their stratagies". Many of such policies are still popularily tainted in the thought that they are 'right wing' and because they believe that only the rich can sustain themselves. 

Rose highlights that these policies are in fact "Freed from the necessity to repeat battles between the left and right" and they "attempt to identify a 'third way' of governing. This is associated with the powers of a territory between the authority of the state, the free and amoral exchange of the market and the liberty of the autonomous, 'rights-bearing' individual subject. Whilst it begs many questions" and there are many "competing versions of this 'third space... let us call this space of semantic and programmatic concerns 'community'." 

Differentiating Community From Society - (Mapping)

"'Society' is not some glue that could fix everything including what other glues cannot fix; it is what is glued together by many other connectors". The presence of 'society' may therefore be partially a result of many collections of communities that intertwine with one another through individuals. 

On the map above the clear disk that slides on top of the collection of people represents the invisible and weak bond society has over us. The spiked shape that fits on top of that goes to meet the individuals and thus represents a 'community'. A community is something more specific, it is shaped by the needs of committed members and alters to encompass 'the willing' through many forms of interaction. 

What is Society? - References from Bruno Latour

'Society' as a term cannot be easily defined, and definitions of the term tend to be weak as they are based upon assumptions or the analysis of a supposedly specific society. The term is popularly used as a tool of explanation for a problem or happening but yet society in itself cannot not explained. In the same way that people look towards a God to blame, it is simply the easy way to excuse our behaviour as individuals or a collective of people tied together with 'social' bonds.   

The more that the term is used to explain specific phenomenons the greater our ability to associate the term with any number of things and situations. This ever increasing and encompassing word still presents us with a problem. "What is a society?".  I therefore present the idea that as a result of these invisible boundaries and the fact it cannot be defined, 'society' does not exist. It is not something physical we can use to explain specific phenomena but something metaphysical we can blame. 

We may look towards science for an explanation of these instinctual bonds that supposedly tie us together but science ironically looks upon social studies (the unproven) to explain human behaviour when, they cannot define or find reasoning from genetics or other theorems. The 'social' and 'society' therefore cannot fit within any regulated area whether it be academic study or its physical presence on earth yet its existence still cannot be denied.

"I am going to define the social not as a special domain, a specific realm, or a particular sort of thing, but only as a very peculiar movement of re-association and reassembling"

Thus the inability to be able to define a specific group, the inability categorise, order and define the 'social' therefore inhibits us from relying upon the verbal and physical existence of 'society'. It simply exists, but not as something tangible that can be used for explanation but of a presence we have and long for, similar to that of other emotive forces. 

McMillan & Chavis' Definition of Community

McMillan & Chavis (1986) define Sense of Community as “a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together.” 

Joseph R. Gusfield's - Definition of Community

Gusfield (1975) identified two dimensions of community, territorial and relational. The relational dimension of community has to do with the nature and quality of relationships in that community, and some communities may even have no discernible territorial demarcation. of relationship, but may live and work in disparate locations, perhaps even throughout the world. Other communities may seem to be defined primarily according to territory, as in the case of neighborhoods, but even in such cases, proximity or shared territory cannot by itself constitute a community; the relational dimension is also essential.