In the world of citizen collectives, 'community' has multiple meanings. The best-known is the classical sociological meaning, based on territorial and social principles. In this sense, a community consists of the residents of a village, neighborhood, or district who are assumed to know each other and be able to connect easily. This meaning often serves as a starting point or ideal for care cooperatives and citizen collectives at the neighborhood, district, or village level.
The counterpart to this (local) community is a society in which people are largely anonymous to one another and have few mutual ties. Many citizen collectives specifically aim to foster community building in such environments and to create communities. A city neighborhood or village is seen as more than just a postal code area or a point on the map.
'Place-making' and'place-shaping'
This starting point is closely related to what is meant by the terms placemaking and place-shaping: the idea of community as a relational network formed through action and collaboration. From this perspective, a community is an arena of opinions, values, and interests - a hub of local and global relationships from which people derive a sense of place and a sense of belonging. It involves developing dynamic, inventive, and resilient (resourceful) communities in which groups of citizens actively shape their own living environment, both socially and physically. In doing so, they contribute collectively to societal transformations in areas such as care, energy, and food systems.
A strong example of community building through place-shaping can be found in the Herenboerderijen (community-supported farms). “There is no ‘you’; there is only a ‘we’ in our cooperative,” says Zaza Versteeg, chair of Herenboerderij Duinstreek. She notes that considerable effort is required to enable the 200 member households to collaborate in ways that ultimately form the community the cooperative aims to be. Researcher Bram van Helvoirt describes Herenboeren as a community in these terms: “Running such a farm collectively is a lot of work—not only on the land but also between people. It is a long-term process, not a quick fix.” (Report Nacht van CollectieveKracht)
Horlings, L.G & G. van der Vaart, 2019, Sustainable placeshaping: what, why and how: Findings of the SUSPLACE program; Synthesis report, Wageningen UR. 85 p.
Horlings, L.G., Roep, D., Mathijs, E. & Marsden, T., 2020, Exploring the transformative capacity of place-shaping practices, In: Sustainability Science.15, 2, p. 353-362.
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