[Xmca-l] Re: Interesting to think about: the social springs of giving

[mike cole]

larry, Andy

Does Horton's advice provide an explanation for the various phenomena on
display in that video segment?

I am a little lost here.
mike

On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 11:47 PM, Lplarry <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:

> Andy,
> The wisdom of Myles Norton.
> You must go back. Does this mean retreat or withdraw to a simple place?
> The question of the place being simple also seems relevant.
> Also the need for a goal. Is the type of goal required an *ethical* goal
> that is shared?
> THEN  the movement and application will take its *own* form and structure
> once we have a place.
> It seems Myles Horton is trusting  goals without blueprints that give
> pre/established answers.
> TRUSTING the  place and the goals to open opportunities of possibility. A
> simple place
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Andy Blunden" <ablunden@mira.net>
> Sent: ‎2015-‎10-‎20 2:18 AM
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Interesting to think about: the social springs of
> giving
>
> I watched the story.
> I already knew about Make-a-Wish so it was no surprise, but
> Mike's point was of course the way MaW became a vehicle for
> a fantastic wave of building social fabric.
> XMCAers are all going to be interested in any idea which can
> lead to building this kind of *trust* in a community. Trust
> is basically what "social capital" is, but the point is only
> how does one go about *building* that trust? Robert Putnam
> says almost any doing-something-together will have this
> effect, and took choir groups as his typical example.
> Personally, I think MaW would do better than choir groups,
> but that's not the point. Putnam's own data in his original
> study in Italy actually showed that the best predictor of
> social capital was having a PCI local government, which was
> inconvenient for Putnam's theory, so he just excluded this
> from his results.
> The story this week in Australia has been about Tamworth,
> famous for an annual Country Music festival, but otherwise a
> typical remote outback town. It is now building a
> Pharmaceutical plant. How did this huge change happen? A
> young boy had bowel cancer and his mother, a good member of
> the Country Women's Association, discovered that cannabis
> was the only medication which relieved the pain and nausea
> the boy was suffering. She took up the cause. While
> illegally acquiring cannabis she started lobbying government
> to legalise medical cannabis and she won, though the whole
> business will take a year or so to implement. And Tamworth
> will be all set to market it. She has gathered a huge social
> movement and local support radiating out from Tamworth.
> My point. Make-a-Wish worked for North East Arkansas, partly
> because of one child who lived to champion it. Cannabis
> legalisation and production worked for Tamworth.
> As Myles Horton said:
>
>         What you must do is go back, get a simple place,
>         move in and you are there. The situation is there.
>         You start with this and let it grow. You know your
>         goal. It will build its own structure and take its
>         own form.
>
> Andy
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
> On 20/10/2015 4:00 AM, mike cole wrote:
> > What did you make of the CBS segment, Jay? Does it provide useful example
> > of principle of community's in Turner?
> > Mike
> > Mike
> >
> > On Monday, October 19, 2015, Jay Lemke <lemke.jay@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> For an interesting approach to "community", I'd recommend Edith Turner's
> >> "Communitas". Ethnographic deepening of late Victor Turner's concept.
> >>
> >> JAY.
> >>
> >>
> >> Jay Lemke
> >> LCHC/Department of Communication
> >> University of California - San Diego
> >> www.jaylemke.com
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Oct 18, 2015 at 8:58 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net
> >> <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Yes, indeed I am interested, Mike.
> >>> Critiquing the concept of "social capital" and developing an
> alternative
> >>> concept of "social solidarity" and searching for a suitable unit of
> >>> analysis was how I got started down the track I have been on ever since
> >>> then, about 2003. What is the difference between community as in all
> >> people
> >>> living in such and such town, and "real" community? Robert Putnam had
> >>> assembled evidence that almost any collective activity fosters what he
> >>> called "social capital." The problem was that he couldn't distinguish
> >>> between the mafia taking root in a community and a community taking
> >> control
> >>> of crime on its streets, etc. His classic "example" activity was the
> >>> formation of choir groups, proven promoters of collective "wealth".
> >>>
> >>> Andy
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> *Andy Blunden*
> >>> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
> >>>
> >>> On 19/10/2015 2:07 PM, mike cole wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> I found a segment of the American weekly TV program, 60 minutes, more
> >> than
> >>>> usually interesting this evening, and one segment in particular
> >>>> seemed to have a lot of relevance to many different interests of
> people
> >> on
> >>>> xmca. The topic was the the activities of the "Make a Wish
> Foundation."
> >>>>
> >>>> Of the very many issues that the program discusses, one which I found
> >>>> particularly interesting was the ability of the organized practice of
> >>>> communities
> >>>> raising money to give seriously ill children "a last wish" is one that
> >> has
> >>>> particular relevance to questions about the mechanisms of social
> >>>> solidarity. In small towns in northern Arkansas, a relatively poor and
> >> out
> >>>> of the part of the US, people raise amazing amounts of money to
> provide
> >>>> special experience for kids who are dying of some disease that has not
> >>>> known current cure. What particularly caught my attention especially
> is
> >>>> the
> >>>> powerful effect that participation in the money raising and the
> >> ingenious
> >>>> social organization of the activities, has on community members across
> >>>> several generations, from peers to grandparents. In one sense, it
> seems
> >>>> that everything is so focuses on the individual kid that it is "just a
> >>>> manifestation of late capitalist individualism." If effects on the
> kids
> >> is
> >>>> interesting, but it is the reflected effect on the community pretty
> >>>> generally, and the emergence of strong personal bonds in particular
> that
> >>>> caught me most.
> >>>>
> >>>> Andy might find this interesting as an example of a project.
> >>>>
> >>>> mike
> >>>>
> >>>>    http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/topics/60-minutes/     click on
> make a
> >>>> wish
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >
>
>


-- 

It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
object that creates history. Ernst Boesch