Comparing The Abundant Community By John Mcknight And Peter Block

Humans in society are like musicians in an orchestra. Solo, their parts sound odd and out of place, lacking the harmonies mindfully composed for the rest of the orchestra. Humans are interdependent, social creatures by nature. We rely on each other to survive. We rely on each other to do jobs that might require a certain skill set or jobs that we might not have time to do ourselves. We even rely on each other to bring a sense of familiarity and security to our communities just by knowing one another. If we all remained anonymous, then we could not rely on each other to satisfy these vital societal needs. Scott Russell Sanders, in his essay “The Common Life”, states that the more people in a community who prefer to live isolated and reclusive lives, the more susceptible the community is to a division that impedes its ability to live together, interact synergistically, and thrive. He correctly believes that this division can lead to a total “breakdown” in society.

Communities play an essential role in the development of the self and learning about the stranger. Through communities, individuals are able to socialize and gain a greater understanding of each other. A community can be defined in many different ways based on every individual’s experience with it. Developing a strong community takes time. Some people, like Jeannette Walls, do not have the opportunity to develop strong communities throughout their childhood.

A community is a place where people around supposed to be able to live and thrive together. When one thinks of a community, the image that most likely is visualized is one of a place where each person lives harmoniously with all the other members of that community. While this may be the typical image of a community, it is not the realistic view. In reality communities can share both good and bad aspects. In Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-First Century Peter Dreier, John Mollenkopf, and Todd Swanstrom make the argument that the place a person lives ultimately matters over all else; the place which a person lives effects the choices that that he/she makes and determines his/her ability to obtain a

In his book, the author, John Freie identifies the difference in genuine and counterfeit communities and how these communities affect our society. Freie states that a community is based on human relationships in which people are actively participating and cooperating with others; however, he also explains there are counterfeit communities that only “suggest” connectedness between people through symbols and images; these communities are sold to people rather than built. Therefore, based on his definitions, the main difference between the genuine and counterfeit communities is true human interaction and relationships. In his book, Freie explains there are certain areas of society that are not considered to be genuine communities but

Personal behaviors are largely shaped by social pressures—this statement holds more as fact than as theory. Evidently, communities pose as a positive. Why else would they exist if they were not believed to be advantageous? Communities stand as collective forces much stronger than individual forces and additionally, communities exist as oases of social comfort helping one another express emotions and gain acceptance. These positive aspects are blatantly obvious, and there really is no need to further investigate these pros within communities. Instead, there should lie more concern around the proponents of communities that are not obvious: their deleterious effects on the individual. As great as they are, communities also strip away individuality

First, community is our “home.” We have been living in a community ever since we were just little babies and it has always influenced us. Communities have played a big part in who we are today. We start off in school not knowing anyone or anything and as you get older you begin to think about the

Community is built of two main elements. First, community requires communal caring. Members need to put themselves in positions where they are able to relate to other members and does everything “within reasonable limits of self-sacrifice” (65). The second is communal reciprocity. Individuals will serve other members of the community, not for exchange of goods, but to provide generosity and support. These elements of community appear in the lives of all individuals, even the most capitalist ones. Humans are entirely capable of these.

Living in community will expose selfishness, ambition, jealousy, dissension and impurity in ourselves, allowing us to experience loss, despair, and stress. Even so, all of this is important to our spiritual formation because we mature as Christians,

After reading chapters one though four, I now have a better understanding of the citizen way and the consumer way. The authors described the citizen way as, “one who is a participant in a democracy regardless of their legal status. It is one who chooses to create the life, the neighborhood, the world from their own gifts and the gifts of others.” They then described the consumer way as, “one who has surrendered to others the power to provide what is essential for a full and satisfied life.” While the two ways are worlds apart they do have some similarities. Such as, when the authors wrote about “kinds of associations”, which is just a group of people with shared views and goals. Kind of like a sports team, which the authors bashed on in earlier

Once upon a time in America neighbors knew each other and communicated on a daily basis. You knew their children and they knew your children. Neighbors would look out for your home when you were at work of went on vacation. If you needed a ride your neighbor or even a stranger would make sure you got where you needed to go. If you couldn’t pay your rent the community would throw you a rent party. The neighbors would have a pot luck and bring a few dollars to help their fellow human out. These are just a few examples of how social capital used to work. You do notice I said used to work. It doesn’t happen as much today as in the yesterday.

Human interaction become short and instrumental lacking emotional and personal involvement. We choose our relationships and social groups for objective reasons. Georg Simmel’s The Metropolis and Mental Life” demonstrates the importance of money to us: “Money, with all its colorless and indifference becomes the common denominator of all values” (27). These choices tend to be goal oriented, such as in “what am i going to get out of this?” and “Is this really worth my time”. Simmel focused on two forms of culture, found either in the small town or the large city, subjective and objective. He found that a key urban problem was the increased objective culture, where individuals are not fully engaged in the culture of the community; they are detached

Community is something that every human on this planet should be able to bask in the glory of. When looking at the reasoning and purpose of the article ‘Reclaiming Community’, you see neighborhoods overtaken by fear, resulting in the citizens hiding away in their homes away from any confrontations. As the article mentions the word ‘community’ it seems to just be a word of the past, something that really doesn’t hold much meaning to the urban neighborhoods. We have all seen a huge decline in neighbors going on picnics with each other, asking for a cup of sugar, babysitting each other’s kids, or looking out for one another’s houses. Despite the drug wars, diversification, or complications that come naturally with a neighborhood, all

The ecological theory of development that was proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005), is relevant to state all of our lives. Bronfenbrenner’s research demonstrates how our development is affected by the environment in which we live. The model consist of five major systems; microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. "Ecological systems theory is an approach to study of human development that consists of the scientific study of the progressive, mutual accommodation, throughout the life course, between an active, growing human being, and the changing properties of the immediate settings in which the developing person lives, as this process is affected by the relations between these settings, and by the larger

In Charles Derber’s “The Good Man Fills His Own Stomach,” Derber refers to two very different communities. One is the Ik who lived in Uganda and were described as “unfortunate people expelled by an uncaring government.” The other, was an imaginary community from the Woody Allen movie Crimes and Misdemeanors. This community seemed to resemble a community from our present day upper class with only the best hotels, restaurants, and symphonic recordings. Although these two groups are very different, they each still follow the criterion of a community. Each are groups of people who have formed a sort of bond with each other because of a certain lifestyle, interests, or beliefs.

Communities are affected, and in a sense defined by, forces that affect community members and their space. The forces can range from outside organizations such as the government and large corporations … These components of the community vary infinitely, and thus no two communities are the same; even a given community is not the same over time (Cnaan & Milofsky, p. 1)