Monday, November 2, 2009
Diversity
I know I've been talking a lot about BGI, but I can't express the gratitude I feel for finding a program that has helped me take forty-seven years of seemingly incongruous experience and find a passion that is completely relevant to who I am.
This blog is an assignment from my Using the Social Web for Social Change class, instructed by Christopher Allen, who is well-known and respected in the field of digital technology and its effects on our social structure. Yesterday, Christopher posted a video by Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist who instructs his own social web class at Kansas State University. That is where I found the video that you see above. I love it because it's a great example of how the social web can bring out the common good in us all - the same common good that I believe we can build through more thoughtful community design.
I am also taking a Marketing class at BGI, where students are teaming up to research 3BL concepts. My team and I are investigating the viability of becoming 3BL developers of regenerative communities. Now there are many amazing concepts and technologies involved in truly regenerative community development, each of which would require a lengthy description. And I hope to discuss many of them in this blog. But I would like to first begin with the concept of diversity, because I have this Utopic vision of the future - a future that is founded upon the concepts that were expressed in the video above, by many people who chose to respond to a simple invitation on YouTube.
Thanks to the generous efforts of the folks at Re-Vision Labs, I now have a venue for an assignment for my Creativity and Right Livelihood class project - a creative session. A creative session is like a mini-brainstorm around a puzzle. Participants with diverse backgrounds churn out ideas in a moderated session with the idea of generating some form of cross-pollination. I chose to design the session around the following question "In what ways might we bring diversity into community development?" The term diversity is meant to include racial, socio-economic, religious and generational diversity, as well as the personalities we all are born with and acquire throughout our lives. Now, this certainly isn't a new idea, but perhaps we can find ways to approach it in a new way.
I would appreciate any feedback you might have. Thanks.
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Hey Julie,
ReplyDeleteI like your direction. After this last Intensive, I would like to suggest that we consider adding the idea of political diversity to that list. I think much of the true polarization in this country at this time has become politicized and boiled down to whether we are flying either the red or blue colors. While it is not surprising that BGI's student body, staff, and faculty are nearly 100% Liberal/Democrat, this simply does not serve us in the end. More comfortable? Of course. More effective? Hardly. Perhaps a good litmus of where we still hold onto prejudices is where we feel comfortable making jokes at the expense of another group. While I would be offended at the mere hint of a racist/sexist etc joke, I admit that Republicans are an easy target for me still. Which is probably an excellent indicator of where my focus should be in terms of learning how to bridge that gap, and learn how to see things from the perspective I seem to understand least.
Bonnie,
ReplyDeleteAs usual you have brilliantly woven several key concepts into one. Are we to just chock it up to human nature that we need to simplify complex systems to make sense of them? Are we incapable of acknowledging our similarities because it is easier to fight over our differences? Why do some types of diversity appear to be "fair game" to even the post-heroic ;)