Communitarian advocate Amitai Etzioni tells us that while we might be tempted to think that our ‘connections have been destroyed’ and ‘communities have largely disappeared from our landscape’; he asserts ’communities have far from vanished, even in our big cities.’ Etzioni concedes our connections have been seriously damaged; but he insists that they have not been destroyed. To the contrary, the irrepressible Etzioni claims that ‘contemporary communities (continue to) evolve among members of a group even if (it is) dispersed…’Â
Robert Putnam says that, as we become more aware again of our need for connections, people are beginning to show renewed interest in redeveloping our communities. Hugh Mackay says, ‘The signs are already beginning to emerge of (the) desire to pay more attention to personal relationships, to re-connect with each other, to re-establish the sense of belonging to a community’
One obvious sign of a renewed interest in community some observers see as encouraging is that people all over the world are developing ‘virtual’ community networks on the net. In cyberspace, people are actually developing a vast array of connections that would have been inconceivable until recently, when the idea of community was circumscribed by a particular physical place. Through these connections, people say they not only have access to more information,but they also engage in more forthright conversations than they would do face to
face.Â
Another not-so-obvious sign of a renewed interest in community is that people – particularly young people – want ‘real’ community networks not just ‘virtual’ community networks. Gen X’ers say that having flesh-and-blood friends is 20 times more important to them than having cyber-friends Many of them are exploring the development of ‘real’ community networks through participation in small community groups. Currently, in some places, up to 40 per cent of the population are involved in small community groups.Â
Another sign of a renewed interest in community is that people – particularly young people – seem to be interested in getting involved with large non-government community organisations. Though there has been a strong downward trend in volunteering for a long time, volunteering is up again for the first time in years. In 1998, 74 per cent of high school students were involved in volunteering, as compared with 62 per cent in 1989. In 1998, 42 per cent of first year university students were involved in volunteering regularly, as compared with 27 per cent in 1987. Many of these young people were involved in volunteering with large, alternative, high-profile, fast-moving, non-government, community organisations.
Another sign of a renewed interest in community is that government agencies are more interested in getting involved with communities – sponsoring more community development programs. More and more government agencies around the world are becoming interested in sponsoring community development programs because recent research shows ‘many communities can discharge many social missions very effectively. Their actions cost the public little, and they can closely tailor their services to recipients because they know their members personally. Communities can play a major role in providing services as divergent as law enforcement, preventative and acute health care, and drug and alcohol abuse treatment.’ And ‘as the ability to increase taxes to pay for social services is nearly exhausted, and the total costs continue to rise at rates higher than inflation, communities may well be the most important new source of such services in the future.’
More info: daveandrews.com.au
