Community

[radegund]

inannajones has a great discussion of community going on. My contribution ballooned, so I decided to put it here instead.

When I was nine we moved from a pedestrianised terrace of tiny Corporation houses in Glasthule to a much posher house in Blackrock. The former was full of community spirit - with long-term residents, lots of kids, shared local activities etc. - and although my family were outsiders there for all sorts of reasons, it was a really great place to be a kid in. There was much less of that in Blackrock - not none, but certainly nothing like in Glasthule.

Probably because of this one experience, I think of this largely as a socio-economic phenomenon: community seems likely to be stronger where people have less material wealth. (The ideal capitalist set-up, of course, is to have everyone living alone, sharing nothing and thus each needing one of everything.) On Clanbrassil Street the other week I saw a sight that shot me back twenty years (gasp): two small girls wearing one skate each, lurching hand in hand along the pavement.

However, I'm interested in what gothwalk says in his post about the thriving community spirit in Hollybank, because that's not exactly in a deprived area. Maybe it's a historical thing: our generation grew up with different assumptions from those of our parents, and so we don't form communities as naturally as we might have twenty years ago.

I'm all for the intentional community thing, needless to say. Living with a dear friend has been a pretty solidly positive experience for niallm and me. I like the idea of sharing skills and facilities more widely, too - and I'd be interested in investigating more formal arrangements such as a LETS, or even shared ownership of a large house. (In Dublin? Dream on...)