Richard wrote:
>I am not quite sure what you mean by "communities making
>their own decisions" however. Do communities make decisions
>or do politicians who claim to represent communities make
>these ? Can a community make a decision, or do people
>make decisions, either in the context of a globally based or
>a community based economy ?
>
>As one who sees "community" as verb, in terms of what
>people do together when they help each other, trade with
>each other and enjoy each other's company, how can this
>process make collective decisions ?
>
This is always what happens when you try to give a brief answer to a
complex question!
'Community' has multiple meanings. I use it here in an anarchist sense to
designate self-defining groups of people, as opposed to 'society' which
includes imposed governance structures. Thus no-one can claim to make
decisions for a community. Perhaps I should have used 'municipality' (in
the sense that Murray Bookchin uses it). In this sense communities cannot
be static, they are processes that change in time and space. I believe
this use of community fits very much with your use.
The next part of the question I suppose then has to move on the
relationship between community and locality. This is an enormous question,
but I do believe that the idea of 'local community' is important, in that
it has a vital relationship with sutainability, with the necessity of
recognising the coevolution of people and environment. It also has an
important correlation with democracy. Real democracy (that is collective
decision-making with all parties on an equal basis) can only work at a
local level. Again I can see that this is strongly compatible with your
idea of community.
Communities also exist as processes across local levels and above them.
Ideally, the levels above should be constituted and controlled by the
levels below, and should only exist for the purposes of doing a particular
necessary task. As for cross-local (or interlocal) communities, well, they
can and should be anything- diversity is as good for human culture as it is
for other species, and helps prevent dictatorship and control.
That's a very short answer with lots of further questions and problems, no
doubt, but I hope it helps!
David.
David Wood
PhD Student ('The Rural Peace Dividend')
Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Tel: 0191 222 5305
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