What is Community?

Transition initiatives are described as community-based actions focused on building local community resilience. But what do we mean by community? And do we actually have any community in Sydney?

The rationale for transition initiatives is based on several premises:

1. If we rely on governments to act on the problems of peak oil, climate change and unsustainable living it will be too little too late
2. If we rely on individuals to make all the changes, it will probably be too little (just not enough people making enough changes)
3. If we get together as a community then we might just manage to make a transition to a less oil-dependent, less polluting and more resilient society and nation.

So community and community action are crucual to realising the transition vision. To me this makes it pretty important to ask questions and try to find answers about community. If it is to be our vehicle for salvation, we had better learn what it is, whether it exists already and, if not, how the hell do we create it?

Being by nature someone who likes to get a firm conceptual grasp of what I'm dealing with and how everything fits together,my habitual approach is to research things, and recently I have been doing this with regard to this concept of community. This is a work in progress, so this discussion is going to happen in a few episodes. Hopefully it might stimulate some thinking about it, even if it does not provide any easy answers (which I don't think it will). This first instalment has no answers, only questions.

Most of us would, I suspect, have a picture in our minds of our prehistoric forbearers, living in small groups in caves, hunting for and gathering food for their survival.Their tribal community was a neccesity for survival. The same is seen in the animal kingdom today where most species exist in mobs, herds, prides, colonies or whatever for the same reason. The ultimate punishment is banishment from the tribe which may mean certain death in animal societies. The basic function of these types of communities was survival through collaborative action.

Fast-forward to today. We can still see this tribe or herd structure at work in remote primitive human societies and in the animal kingdom. But what about the world we live in. Where is the community? Is it where we live? Is it where we work? Is it where we play? Is it a global network of "friends" or followers (most of whe\om we have never met in person) interacting on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter etc?, is it a religious congregation or community organisation? Is it all of these for some of us?

Community has become a very complex issue in our contemporary urban world. Much of it doesn't happen in our neighbourhood. Local may not be a factor at all in the communities we personally identify with. We are certainly networked across vast spaces and areas of interest, but if we can't identify a true local community with any certainty, how do we start a local transition initiative?

Human societies and communities are complex, diverse and changing. Is that an obstacle to transition or an opportunity?

Hopefully these questions have got you thinking. Next instalment, I will throw in come of the things I have gleaned from my reading so far. None of it is definitive I'm afraid, but it may lead to some ideas being tossed about that will assist our transition efforts. Meanwhile, why not use the comments facility to throw in your ideas!