What community?

Chapters 2 – 4 seemed to deal heavily with problems a community face and how to address them. I believe that all of the ideas that Block brings up are very good, solid ideas. I only think that what Block expects out of a community is just asking too much. Also it is difficult and almost impossible to say that they will work in any community. Also it is difficult to gauge what difficulties these ideas will have based on the size of a community.

I really enjoyed the example of the hospital because it shows how the methods of this book can have a positive implication in the real world. It is difficult to grasp however, the proper scale to which these methods can work. In one hospital with willing members it worked great. In an urban town where most of the people interacting there during the day don’t actually live there and whose members are not interested communal growth how effective can these ideas be?

In one of the sections Block talks about how it is important to gather people together in order to have the conversations that bring about possibility and change. What good is knocking down a tree if no one is around to hear it? Also this brings up the point about leadership. Block says the ones who dominate a conversation are the ones who talk most strongly about problems and can complain and argue the best. Who is to gather people? Ones who attract attention in this negative way enough to get people together? How willing can community members be about changing the conversation unless they’re intrigued by everything that is wrong? I feel this creates a very difficult environment to initiate positive change in a community.

A big topic in the chapters was media. I thought it was very interesting how he talked about the media controls what is perceived about a community. It’s commonplace to say that the media only puts out stories to serve its own ends but I never thought of the implications that those stories have on the perception of that community. It even scared me a little to think that I didn’t even consider that the communities in the news didn’t have anything good to offer. Even when I would see local news about my own area all I could think was “wow that place is pretty messed up.” Just to have the idea that there was the possibility that even though what story is being told doesn’t represent a whole picture, my perception of media changed. It’s a good example of how changing the conversation can change thoughts, which change practices and routines. It’s a small example of Block’s ideas at work.