SmallCommunity.org

Readings

Readings

DEFINED

The Future of Community - This is a summary of Arthur Morgan's theories and practices for the small community. Not only is the philosophy and theory detailed clearly and comprehensively, but practical tips are included for setting up or improving community. Although first published in the late 1950s it is still relevant to the problems of today and offers a clear understanding of both community as a place and as a practice. It is less than 200 pages in length and the knowledge contained can act as a primer for community practice for many years.

Small is Beautiful - This book by E. F. Schumacher was extremely popular in the 1970s and 80s. In it, Schumacher points out both the practical aspects of “smallness” as well as the psychological and spiritual aspects that are basic to a “small” orientation. Schumacher was born 30 years after Morgan. The two of them represent the best of two generations of thought on the small community way of living. Small is Beautiful was first published in 1973 and republished in 1999.

What are People For - If Schumacher and Morgan represent the first and second generation of community, Wendell Berry represents the third generation. Morgan was an engineer and Schumacher an economist and their writings are very practical in nature. Wendell Berry is one of the greatest writers in American history and his writings reflect his artistic skills. At the same time Berry is also a small farmer and a resident of and proponent for small communities. This book of essays offers insights into the "spirit of community", without which only practical applications will not suffice. The books was first published in 1990.

Love and Survival - Dr. Dean Ornish is noted for his groundbreaking work proving that it is possible to reverse heart disease by a change in lifestyle. His program involves major changes in diet, exercise, stress reduction and group interactions. Love and Survival follows his medical work, emphasizing the significance and power for healing of group interactions - what we call “community”. The experience of community in the sense of day to day interactions with people can be significant in reversing degenerative diseases. Conversely, one can argue that the urban competitive way of life is one of the major reasons for our country’s health crisis.
Ornish himself was raised in and currently lives in an urban environment. This work focuses on scientific evidence from leading professional researchers to justify his conclusions. The same knowledge is intuitively understood by those living in small local communities.
This book was first published in 1998.

Community and Organization - Is an organization a community? According to CSI Founder, Arthur Morgan, the answer is no. Recently we had an opportunity to re-consider this.

Community, Medicine and Tr ust - The October 28, 2002 issue of the New Yorker contained an article by Jerome Groopman, an oncologist. Appearing under the section heading “Annals of Medicine” it was entitled Dying Words with the sub title “How should doctors deliver bad news?

TRENDS

Bowling Alone - Written in 2000, this book is extremely important in analyzing the state of small community in our culture today. Robert Putnam uses the term “social capital” to describe what we refer to as “the spirit of community.” He has suggested a way to measure this factor and has discovered that, after peaking in the 1960s, “community” has been in a long-term decline. He describes the major causes, all which are antagonistic to the small community. This book is a call to action to reverse the trend.

Bowling Alone Summary - This book is so significant that we elected to summarize it in detail to make it easier to understand this work in depth.

Nickel and Dimed to Death - Bowling Alone is an excellent research study of the decline of the small community spirit. In Nickel and Dimed to Death, Barbara Ehrenrich summarizes the suffering of people caught in a culture of competition and consumption. She points out the incredible difficulties of earning a living for those whose skills are not in vogue and the resulting tragedy of their personal and family life. This is the result when community disappears from a culture. Published in 2001.

Big Houses and Small Communities - We no longer live as our grandparents did. Fifty years ago life was more rural and agrarian – a way of living few of us have experienced. Writers like Wendell Barry emphasize the community life that can sprout from working the land, like an additional harvest, but when we no longer grow our own food or even prepare it, building community becomes more difficult.

Distribution of Wealth

Putting a New Spin on Poverty - Increasing poverty and inequity is increasingly denied in America. Or rationalizations are prepared to justify the situation. This analysis of a Wall Street Journal article illustrates the propaganda of the media in supporting the status quo.

Wealth and Democracy - The results of a century or more of urbanization and industrialization are summarized in this work. It is obvious that in a competitive world, eventually, like the results of a sports tournament, there will be an ultimate winner or set of winners. The result will be an enormous inequity in wealth and, following from that, a decline in democratic institutions. To a great extent democracy requires “community” and in its absence, democratic institutions will be controlled by coercion and propaganda. This book describes in great detail the effects in terms of wealth distribution and its impact on democracy. First edition 2002.

Globalization and its Discontents - As the millennium changed, the popular press was filled with stories of a successful century and a wonderful new world to come in the next century. A few years into this century, major protests are occurring, nuclear weapon usage threatens and a never ending war on terrorism is underway. Combined with global collapse of the financial markets, one can question the vision of the coming century that was recently offered. Economic globalization represents a major attack on “community” around the world. It is not sufficient that we compete in our own economy - now every person is against every other person in the world in terms of economic life. This book illustrates the dangers of the globalization trend and the enormous suffering being caused. The author, Joseph E. Stiglitz was the recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics and was chairman of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. Published in 2002.

Community and Compensation - There is great inequity in compensation for work in America today. As a result of current financial scandals, newspapers often publish top Chief Executive Officer salaries from the business world, sometimes performing wage comparisons between that salary and that of the rank and file workers. The ratios are astonishing.

Destroying a Community - The July 23, 2002 issue of the Wall Street Journal gives an example of globalization at work. Elberton, Georgia, a town two hours driving time east of Atlanta, has long been known for its production of gravestones. A vein of granite 6 miles wide and 35 miles long runs beneath the town. There are about 10,000 people in the area and 20% of them work in the granite business. There are about 150 makers of gravestones in the area, most of them small companies. Elberton produces 250,000 granite gravestones each year. Buyers come to this area to select products and 200 truckloads of tombstones are shipped across the country each week. The town has been producing these gravestones for many years and one can probably find sons of gravestone carvers working in the tradition of their fathers.
The July 23, 2002 issue of the Wall Street Journal reports this all changing in late 2001. Small Elberton, secure in its traditional industry, was suddenly jolted by the arrival of a newcomer - an economically globalizing newcomer.

Energy

The Energy Crisis and the Small Community - The trend to centralization should reach its peak within a decade. And at that point, a long awaited reversal should begin. This article summarizes some of the main points for what we call “Depletion Driven Decentralism”

Hubbert's Peak - For the last century, people have migrated from the small community to the urban metropolis. Small communities everywhere have declined and large cities have grown. This tendency away from the small local community is largely the result of industrialization and consumerism. However, this enormous change has only been possible by the usage of massive amounts of fossil fuels. Several million years were required to evolve these fossil fuels and they will all be used up in less than two centuries. This book summarizes the inevitable depletion of these resources and suggests some results, of particular interest to those considering the fate of the small community. The author, Kenneth Deffeyes, worked with King Hubert, a geologist at Shell Oil who, in 1956, accurately predicted the 1971 peak in America’s oil production. Deffeyes projects Humbert’s mathematics to the world situation today. Printed in 2001.

GeoDestinies - As the inevitable depletion of resources continue, the world will no longer be able to live in urbanized areas requiring huge amounts of fossil fuels. The migration from country to city will reverse. Those who are concerned about this possibility, suggest that “technology” will somehow replace natural resources and look for solutions that will extend the current way of life. This book points out the folly of assuming inexhaustible resources and evaluates the supposed miracle technologies that are touted as a way to continue the current mode of living. Written by Dr. Walter Youngquist, Department Chair of Geology, University of Oregon and first printed in 1977.

Car and Community - In the fall of 2002, I began shopping for a used car in Yellow Springs, Ohio. While talking to the owner of one of the cars I evaluated, I asked why he was replacing it. He laughingly said he had bought a new “politically correct” Honda Civic Hybrid. I had noticed several gas/electric hybrids in Yellow Springs, including a Honda Insight, driven by a neighbor, and three Toyota Prisms, driven by members of the Vale, an intentional community with which CIS is associated. Since I now knew the locations of four such hybrids, and have seen others about town, it struck me that Yellow Springs seemed to have a high percentage - that is at least 5 hybrids in a population of 4000.

Community, Technology and Trust - An article about fuel cell technology spurs thoughts on technology interface between community and corporations.

Oil and Energy Sites - This section contains many links that discuss the depletion of oil reserves and the coming crisis to our industrialized civilization.