Creating Community Anywhere (Paperback)

by Carolyn Shaffer (Author) "CHARITA ALLEN GREW UP in a neighborhood filled with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents..." (more)
Key Phrases: harmony trap, cohousing groups, visionary communities, San Francisco, New York, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
In our relentless pursuit of independence, many of us have lost our connections to something larger than ourselves. Creating Communities Anywhere looks at the current structures that connect people (or don't) and proposes ones better adapted to the framework of contemporary society. These chapters are the tools for creating community within the many spaces we occupy. An insightful how-to manual, this book is as much about communication and interpersonal dynamics as it is about community building, be it with family and friends, neighborhoods, workplaces or even electronic communities. I found myself rethinking my own definition of community and past periods of self-imposed isolation. The alternatives here describe a brighter and much broader way to experience life. -- From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by Ilene Rosoff

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The emerging affiliations that we call conscious community incorporate many social and survival aspects of functional community, but also emphasize members' needs for personal expression, growth, and transformation. Conscious community nurtures in each of its members the unfolding from within that allows them to become more fully who they are-and it nurtures its own unfolding as well.

Gently, Kathleen slips out of bed and pads into the next room, where she switches on her computer and logs onto SeniorNet, an electronic network for people fifty-five and over which spans the U.S. and Canada....These people, most of whom she has never seen or even talked to on the phone, will respond with empathy and concern when they log onto SeniorNet and see her message.

Product Details

• Paperback: 283 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (September 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874777461
• ISBN-13: 978-0874777468
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #883,942 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Use This Book To Build the World You Want., July 25, 2000

By	H. M. Barrett "mimereader" (San Francisco, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There may be better handbooks for explaining to people how they can build a community, but this is at least the best one I've personally come across. Yes, it has a liberal orientation, but that does not take away its value for more conservative types like myself. Consider the subtitle for a moment: "Finding Support And Connection In A Fragmented World." Today's more technological society is seriously fragmented, so I decided to look into what Shaffer and Anundsen were saying, in chapters such as Electronic Communities, Visionary Residential Communities, and Turning Neighborhoods And Cities Into Communities. I found them constantly touching issues which only previously floated around in my mind. The best part, however, is that they offer the core solution to what I have always wanted. Too many Americans of European descent, for example, are uninformed about why their culture is eroding toward disaster, but it is due to a variety of ethnic and cultural problems, with the main crisis being the lack of community in a faster world. I decided to style my own ideal community as a "Little Europe," and although this is only an opening vision, remember that "In the beginning was the word." Every great task requires a conducive environment to work in without interference, and this is what we would have if we established a network of organizations; cultural, fraternal, and legal volunteer organizations inspired by our own basic values. And it's in these places, in Little Europes all across the nation, that a new faith and ethical resistance could take root. Great social changes continue to come, and everyone has some opinion about what we are in for, but whether these challenges become advantages or liabilities to people depends on they do now on a local level. Those who see the value of this can inspire others to become positive, aggressive, and active participants as well. Mainstream Americans won't assert their natural rights until they are at least conscious of being a distinct people. We need environments which naturally transform disinterested members of the public into countless trained political leaders, those who are motivated to advance the interests of our communities. Eventually we could develop nonwhite allies and self determination arrangements for them, but for now the task begins exclusively with our own more desperate condition. Those of you with the proper skills might build a Little Europe in your own town. This could begin with a web page explaining a need for a cultural center (which will become more elaborate as the resources are available) and call upon others in your community to assist in building it up in one particular area. The hippies built political communities in the sixties, homosexuals built them in the 70s, and even ethnic minority groups have had them since the 80s; so there is no reason we can't have a place to assert our own interests. When choosing your local geographical footing, take into consideration any resources which can contribute to the longevity of your plans; for example, there may be other ethnic cultural organizations to draw people near your organization, be it a book shop, souvenir manufacturing business, movie theater, or fraternal organization. The stages can roughly be this: Web page, casual socializing, formal meetings in rented space, and then property ownership. Cultural oriented businesses and fraternal organizations in close proximity become the new Little Europe. Keep in mind that our youth need the skills you offer, for a very demanding future could eventually be in their hands. Include the retired and elderly, for an ignorant and disrespectful society is leaving them behind. Let them be offered a role of usefulness and respect in our new community. And look for opportunities to engage the contributions of women on a wide front free of domestic definition; but they are more commonly being denied their inclination to be within that definition. When you read something inspiring about those who won their freedom in the past, especially European peoples, use it to raise the ethnic consciousness of our people here in America. And when you watch some entertainment like Riverdance, listen a little more carefully than other people do, for the inspiration in such rhythms is more powerful than a locomotive, and its time has come!Buy this book, get busy, and good luck!

3 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Community CANNOT be created ANYwhere......, April 6, 2007

By	Brian Green - See all my reviews

True community cannot be anything but INTENTIONAL nor anything but RURAL. Trying to bring people together in an urban or suburban setting is asking for problems. Zoning and occupancy laws, selfish individualism, pollution, noise, fear and distrust, and the lack of pristine natural places is NOT amenable to true, deep, genuine human community. Only in open, natural spaces and environments free from those things that make cities and suburbs so loathsome can meaningful communal culture be built. This culture can only be born and cultivated OUTSIDE OF mainstream society, and to believe otherwise is the height of folly. It is idiotic to think that people can simply meet and congregate once a week or every once in a while, and call that "community". Suburban neighborhoods should also not be called "communities", as they are anything but. The very concept of community is rooted in the deep human need for honest and close intimacy and companionship, not in the superficial settings so frequently found in most institutions. Superficiality is THE social way of life in cities and suburbs, so to expect anything more than that is ignorance. Connection with nature and connection with other human beings is inseparable; natural rural and deep rural settings are the ONLY environments where profound love and connection can begin and grow. This book needs to embrace that understanding and encourage a culture-wide move away from industrialism and city-living. We must return to a counterculture, and also to Mother Nature. There IS no other way.