Contemporary Issues- Community Building Planning Session

Community Building Planning Session
Contemporary Issues Seminar
July 21-22, 2000
With the Society for Applied Anthropology
Organizer: Stanley Hyland, University of Memphis

Nine anthropologists and one sociologist convened for SAR's third Contemporary Issues seminar to develop a conceptual framework for both the theory and practice of building communities, in preparation for a plenary session at the annual meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology (March 29, 2001 in Merida, Mexico). This plenary session examined how anthropologists address social change through the analysis of community, as well as the processes related to strengthening communities.

The result of the July gathering was "a spirited exchange" on why and how local communities are significant in charting a desirable future for a global system that is witnessing growing economic inequity, natural and human disasters, and warfare. The seminar yielded drafts of an exciting set of papers for the Merida plenary session, titled "The Ties that Bind: Building Communities in the 21st Century."

Participants identified five key issues:

1. Rethinking our changing concepts of community: In the discipline of anthropology, the use and application of the concept of community has changed over the last forty years. In addition to geographic communities, anthropologists now talk about dispersed communities, communities of interest, and virtual communities. What are the implications of these emerging concepts?

2. Critical examination of the interactions of global trends and local responses: How do local communities respond to global economic policies, as well as to disasters (both human and natural) and war? Research is needed on community responses such as resistance, cooperation, adaptation, and competition.

3. Critical examination of how communities use or generate resources: How are resources distributed? How do community resources grow, change, and survive? How do communities articulate, negotiate, and resolve conflicts about resources?

4. Critical examination of methods and theories of practice toward community building: A literature review is needed to determine the range of current research.

5. Critical examination of infrastructure that will produce and enhance community building research and practice: An intellectual framework for future action will be created through examining physical factors such as capital, housing, and security; as well as relationship factors, such as social capital, civic entrepreneurship, and social networking.

Left to Right: Jean Schensul, Noel Chrisman, Marietta Baba, Stanley E. Hyland, Tony Oliver-Smith, Francisco Fernandez Repetto, John Van Willigen

Participants:

Stanley E. Hyland (Urban Affairs, University of Memphis)

Marietta Baba (Anthropology, Wayne State University)

Noel Chrisman (Nursing, University of Washington)

Francisco Fernandez Repetto (Antropologicas, Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan)

Tony Oliver-Smith (Anthropology, University of Florida)

Jean Schensul (Institute of Community Research, Hartford, CT)

John Van Willigen (Anthropology, University of Kentucky)