| THE MOVEMENT- WHAT and WHY? | ||||||
| There are two major strands in what I am calling the community building movement as it is occurring around "place". One is the civic or democratic renewal movement which seeks to revitalize citizen participation in the work, institutions and policies of public life. The other is community building aimed at building connections between people that support healthier communal living and action. Some distinguish civic renewal from community building claiming that the attitudes and skills of public participation are different from those of communal participation. They see the communal arena as a more intimate one of shared values and private associations in contrast with a more impersonal, accountable, public arena. While I acknowledge this important distinction in the qualities of different settings I see a great deal of shared concern, strategies and skills in the two strands and thus choose to include both under a broader conception of community building. Many others make a similar connection (the Civic Practices Network for one). In my broader conception I see contemporary community building as especially concerned with inclusiveness which brings it within the orbit of civic renewal. At the same time I see civic renewal giving greater attention to building underlying relationships of participants which brings it into the orbit of historic community building. At the Civic Practives Network - Community site you will find several essays from authors like John McKnight on regenerating community, G. Thomas Gibson and others on the community building movement, and Ernesto Cortez on community organizing along with other pieces on democratic renewal. This section also includes several stories and cases from community building projects around the country. For several articles on civic renewal you can turn once again to the Civic Practices Network, this time to the New Citizenship section. Here you will find pieces on the civic renewal movement, new citizenship, democratic renewal and related ideas. I have also included two more specialized sites of special interest to me, one on community approaches for strengthening families, and one on community based sustainable management of natural resources. The National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice publishes Prevention Report. In the Spring 1998 issue the theme was Community. There are several articles reviewing arguments for and against community based approaches to enhance lives of children, and families. The Community Stewardship Exchange concentrates its efforts on community based conservation of natural resources. Their selection of articles not only reviews the rationale for community based conservation, they also include some pro and con arguments about the merits of collaboration and community ownership. | ||||||
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