i have a daily to-do note that i use to organize my day & capture random notes. this morning, i had a kindling of an idea, and captured this:

i’ve wanted to try make a curation-style newsletter for a while. yet i keep hesitating to start, mainly because i am unsure if it's something i'd enjoy making, and whether people would be interested in it.

but i'm coming to realize that 1) i love collecting content on this topic, and 2) there are not many sources of high quality curations around community. after much searching, it's been hard to find people looking holistically at community from various perspectives, including (among others) space design, social infrastructure, theoretical approaches, and concrete case studies.

it's even harder to search for content around community without being bombarded by SEO optimized listicles vaguely talking about the 'loneliness epidemic' or '5 hacks to increase community engagement'.

community is like, at least 80% intuition and vibes, so i wanted to collate something with more of an artistic sensibility – something that attempts to capture the ineffable and non-rational dimensions of community building as much as the practical.

i originally thought curation could be something i weave into common ground after building more of a foundation. but we're still in the early stages, so my thought is: why not try it out now?

this newsletter is a first attempt at that.

i’ve handpicked a collection of images, theories, and practices from different corners of the web i'm plugged into & from my personal experiences. it's divided into 2 sections:

i hope you enjoy! if this resonates, let me know! i might try put ~1 of these together every month. ❤️

before you dive in...

1. 💻 open this issue on your web browser (not your phone) when you have a spacious chunk of time to leisurely browse through (i recommend at least 20mins)
2. ☕ make yourself a cup of tea or coffee
3. 🎵 play this song & let it set the mood while you read:

spaces

a moodboard of places that captivated my attention in some way.

PRAXIS

theories, practices, and vibes around community.

article series i'm reading: how communities emerge

We don’t build community.
We build containers where community has a chance to emerge.
...

One of the markings of emergence is how the larger, complex system develops a set of attributes that are unique from each individual part.

So what are the attributes that humans take on when in community, that they don’t exhibit independently?

Here are some that I’ve identified:
1. Collective effervescence: The magical “sense” of community, belonging, and connectedness members get when a community is clicking (coined by Émile Durkheim)
2. Culture and behavioral norms: Members start behaving differently in the community than they do elsewhere. New cultural norms emerge.
3. Collective decision-making: The community will make decisions that are unique from what each individual may have decided. Groupthink seeps in.
...

methodology i'm revisiting: world cafe

"the World Café Method is a simple and a powerful tool to foster deep, meaningful conversations in various settings – from corporate environments, to community dialogue or listening sessions, to educational workshops. This participatory design process is helpful at leveraging collective intelligence, encouraging collaboration, and exploring complex topics through discussion" - here

i'm particularly interested in becoming adept at the 'convergence' aspects of the design double-diamond. in world cafes, this looks like a process called the 'harvest', where the results of the cafe are collated and presented so that participants can sense-make what emerged from their collective intelligence. hoping to host one of these soon!

third place i'm curious about: the third space, udaipur

‘The biggest takeaway from this building for us is that it is designed to age, adapt, change and grow according to the needs of the people. Third Space has been designed as a canvas, there is graffiti on the walls. There is a real sense of people owning the building in a way that most architects find incredibly hard. In this situation, we wanted to make sure the building was a canvas on which people could start making their own.’

framework i'm researching: community weaving

To us, community is a web of mutual care around a shared possibility. It is easy to generalize "community" as any group of people with shared interests, or as structures, digital tools, or events. For us, the essence of community is relationships of care, held together by a sense of kinship and mutual support. We use the language of community weaving to remind us that we can't build a web of relationships. That community is a living practice. And that our work is to weave a flourishing tapestry of reciprocity.

We are also curious to expand this definition beyond human relationships. After all, our lives are interwoven with the land, plants, waters, animals, and other beings that we share this planet with. What would it mean to include all forms of life in our communities, like our ancestors did and many Indigenous communities do today? And what would the world look like if we understood it as one big web of relationships?

community i'm watching closely: reading rhythms

"Not a book club, a reading party. Bringing together readers, music, and ambiance in the world's busiest cities."

journal article i'm reading: Social infrastructure, community organizations, and friendship formation: a scoping review

Previous studies aim to understand how place-based community organizations in communities of many countries work to connect people and nurture friendships. However, this paper takes a closer look at how exactly different forms of place-based community organizations contribute to friendship formation.

that's it from me! hope you enjoyed this foray into community from some of the angles i've been seeing it.

see you next week 🍄‍🟫