Category Archives for "Spirituality"

0 Economic Resources of Local Places

I’m drawing on my experience of community development to consider six categories of community assets, and the fifth is economic resources of local places. You can find the full list towards the end of my post, What Are Community Assets?

“Economic resources” is gloriously vague and so it’s worth asking what do we mean by the economic resources of local places?

Community development workers in England have not shown much interest in economic regeneration. Community audits rarely acknowledge the local economy. When people mention it, the focus is usually on community initiatives such as social enterprises.

Perhaps the radical 60s and 70s account for the origins of community development. Activists viewed the economy as a source of injustice. The economy certainly is a source of injustice, more so today than in the 60s and 70s. Perhaps things would be better today had we paid more attention to the economy in the past.

So, let’s take a look at some local economic resources, many perhaps peripheral to our understanding of our neighbourhoods.

Natural resources

Some places benefit from local natural resources, most notably perhaps in the coal communities that until recently were dependent on coal for most local income. They fought for a decent income from work in difficult and dangerous conditions over decades and in the UK coal imports wiped out most of these communities.

Steel communities grew from nearby reserves of wood, iron ore and water to power the earlier mills. These industries too were wiped out by cheaper imports.

Farming communities benefit from proximity to a variety of sources of income and so they are perhaps more robust. They are however similarly vulnerable to cheap imports. Older readers may remember Guernsey tomatoes being advertised. Today, if you travel around Guernsey you see empty greenhouses, their tomato industry is no more.

Perhaps ports and other centres of communications are beneficiaries of natural resources. Liverpool for example used to be wealthy through imports and is now not so wealthy as imports have declined.

Recent history suggests international trade is not always good news for communities. This is one reason many economists worry about the decline of manufacturing, which means there is less to export.

Parks, woodlands and other tourist attractions can also be seen as natural resources. They bring trade into an area.

Local Businesses

Large-scale industry is another source of local wealth. Billingham was for many years a relatively wealthy town, when ICI was the dominant industry. ICI is no longer there, although replaced by several smaller chemical factories. This has resulted in long-term unemployment in the area.

Note this started as a local business that combined with others to form ICI and so decision-making left the area. For several decades the economy in Billingham was pretty much dependent on ICI and the decline of the chemicals industry was a disaster.

The problem with many larger businesses is their locality becomes dependent on them and suffers when they are withdrawn. A more diverse local economy is likely to be more stable.

The success of small and medium-sized industry will depend upon the extent to which businesses can support one another. This is another reason a more diverse economy can be beneficial. Remember, smaller businesses are likely to have a shorter lifespan and so there will be a higher turnover.

Traders

Traders are often the first to spring to mind when we think about the local economy because they are visible businesses. People do not leave their homes to visit business parks but they may enjoy shopping in local centres where they meet friends and relax. Traders are just as dependent on industry as everyone else of course. Mass unemployment in a small areas is likely to put many retail businesses out of business as people spend less.

Traders are the backbone of any community. Other activities gravitate to the shopping centre so that residents can attend to other aspects of their lives in the same place. This has been the purpose of the marketplace for centuries and why large-scale out-of-town shopping centres seem so dead. Where shopping is the sole activity, there is little sense of community life. These centres draw people from all over, so it is less likely they bump into someone they know. They draw custom out of local centres and so put local traders out of business. This reduces the activity in local marketplaces so that many neighbourhoods seem dead.

Freelancers

Freelancers are often not noticed because they are not visible. Shops can be found in shopping centres, businesses in business areas and parks but freelancers often work from home and have little local presence.

If they are doing well and spend some of their income locally, they will have an impact on the local economy. Furthermore, if they seek out and support other local businesses, they may have an economic impact on the area beyond their apparent size.

The thing is freelancers are experimenting with new ideas. Many will not succeed but it is from small beginnings that significant businesses can grow.

Trade Associations

Associations of businesses are important because they are opportunities for businesses to meet that would otherwise never find one another. There are several kinds of association and I shall mention two.

Referral marketing associations are where smaller businesses can support each other. They are open to any business although there are associations specifically for larger businesses.

These are usually national organisations so that businesses can build relationships locally through meetings and nationally through online contact.

Local associations are where traders (usually) in a single centre meet to support each other’s businesses. Hunters Bar, for example, has an established traders association that does what it can to support small enterprises in the area.  Also freelancers who produce saleable products can sell them through the local shops.

Local associations may have a role to play in wider neighbourhoods. Hunters Bar’s community organisation, with the traders, organises a quarterly street market. The community association has their own agenda but recognise the contribution traders make to their neighbourhood.

Is it possible for community and business organisation to become natural allies? Share in the comments interesting examples you know about.

0 Physical Resources and Ecology

I’m drawing on my experience of community development to consider six categories of community assets, and the fourth is physical resources and ecology. You can find the full list towards the end of my post, What Are Community Assets?

Of course, physical resources include buildings and I wrote about buildings as assets in the first of this sequence. So, I will not explore them further here. Let’s turn instead to …

Geomorphology

Land

This includes the shape of the land; its hillsides and plains. If you don’t believe this is important, consider the plight of those who are experiencing repeated flooding. Flooding is to do with the shape of the land and land use.  This may have an impact on other areas. So, poor land use in one neighbourhood might lead to flooding in another.

The shape of the land determines its use.  Its shape determines routes through the land and the positions of buildings.  On hillsides, the larger houses will often face across the valley whilst poorer housing faces other houses along the hillside.  The well-to-do get better views, often at one time over the industry they own in the valley below.

Parks and views enhance neighbourhood identity and attracts visitors. Good walks can bring people into an area and local businesses benefit from their presence.  Sheffielders will tell you their city is built on seven hills.  I’m not sure how many hills there are but certainly walking the city, there are always interesting views across the valleys.

Rivers and other waterways can often form a focal point for an area. Canals always have a bridal path alongside and rivers are often associated with walks. These are good for pedestrians and can link neighbourhoods together. Waterways are usually closely related to the industrial history and heritage of an area and I’ll look at this in more detail in a later post.  Trying to track the course of a river and its tributaries can make for an interesting few hours, often leading into unfamiliar places at the back of the familiar.

Climate

Prevailing winds also decide the positions of housing.  Industry is often found downwind of better housing.

Land use is central to so much of our experience of a neighbourhood. The layout of the roads may help movement around the neighbourhood. Impassable multi-lane roads can break up a neighbourhood or cut it off from other neighbourhoods.

Urban Environment

It may be worth looking at the significant buildings in your area. If significant buildings are close together maybe they form a focal area for your neighbourhood. Are there ways in which that area can be made more attractive to new enterprises or businesses?

Industrial areas can be a blessing and a blight. Older industrial areas can be a fascinating resource of vernacular architecture. Buildings erected before prefabrication often display ornate brick and stonework under the grime. But more recent business estates can be, well, boring.

Example of street art by Phlegm, by the River Don.

Street art, not to be confused with graffiti, enhances many disused buildings. Street art is often practised inside disused buildings and what we see from the streets is usually there by arrangement with the owners. Perhaps the most famous street artist is Bristol’s Banksy but in Sheffield we enjoy the works of artists including Phlegm, Kid Acne and Faunagraphic. Whilst most people don’t travel to view street art, it enhances appearance and so adds to that sense of community identity.

The second part of Julian Dobson’s book, “How to Save Our Town Centres”, looks in some detail at the various types of land use that can make up a healthy town centre. Much the same applies to any neighbourhood.

Ecology

Pollution

Another issue in industrial areas is pollution. Perhaps we think of pollution as immediate and indeed it can be quickly distributed by waterways or in the air. However, polluted land can be most pernicious. In effect it restricts possible uses of the land. Polluted ex-industrial areas cannot be used for housing and so where there were large-scale factory areas, there is little that can be done to return them to residential use.

A challenge many communities face is the uses they can make of the spaces between. Polluted land limits these uses and land ownership can be a real headache. However, it is possible for communities to do a great deal with determination and otherwise limited resources. A good example is Todmorden’s Incredible Edibles, where local people grow food in any spaces they can find.

Trees and Plants

Indeed with guerrilla gardening, it is possible to find fruit trees and the like springing up in unexpected places. Cuts to local government services means local authorities sometimes need unofficial help to maintain flowerbeds. Whether they appreciate it is another matter.

Another great amenity is wayside trees and in Sheffield at present there is a massive struggle between the local authority and residents determined to save Sheffield’s trees. Wayside trees have a massive impact on the health of residents, their value is not just in their appearance. Sheffield is one of the most tree-lined cities in the country. Unfortunately, the Council has entered into a PFI contract with a company that cuts down mature trees, replacing them with small trees that won’t get in the way of their equipment. Currently residents are contemplating challenging the Council in the courts.

Deregulation

The problem here, as with so many corporate activities, is they subscribe to a narrow understanding of economics. The narrow view seeks to maximise profit to shareholders by making activities as economic for the company as possible. You would think the Council’s role would be to represent the interests of all who have an economic interest in the area and not only the interests of a single company.

Whilst it seems many people agree that there should be less red tape and theoretically believe regulation is a bad thing. When confronted with specific examples of what regulation protects, they often see the value of it. The assets of any neighbourhood do not lie solely in the activities of businesses. Maintaining and supporting land use that may seem unproductive can bring other benefits in the long-term. It may be easier to argue for areas such as ancient woodland but the same is true of oases of green in primarily urban and industrial areas.

If the bureaucrats win the argument and cut down most of Sheffield’s trees for reasons of economic efficiency, they will have changed the character of the city forever. They close off possibilities for the future so that they can save a few pounds now. Indeed we don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone.

If you keep your eyes open, you will find many examples in your place of good and bad management of local physical resources and ecology.  Why not share them here?

1 Resources of Public, Private and Non-Profit Institutions

I’m drawing on my experience of community development to consider six categories of community assets, and the third is public, private and non-profit institutions. You can find the full list towards the end of my post, What Are Community Assets?

Last time I suggested local associations can be assets or liabilities and so can other organisations active in a neighbourhood.

If a neighbourhood has a social enterprise based there, committed to working for the benefit of the area, the chances are it will have extensive networks into all three of these types of organisation. Local partnerships can marshal resources and enable all interested parties to contribute to a single plan for the area. Find My Three Function Model for more details.

Community Plans

The Local Government Act 2000 in the UK required local authorities to publish a community plan. As far as I can tell no later Local Government Acts rescinded this legislation, although there is variation in the extent to which local authorities carry them out.

These community plans theoretically bring together all sectors, including community associations, to plan for their local area. What forms a local area, seems to vary from council to council. Some produce a single plan for the local authority area. Others base this plan on plans for neighbourhoods within the Local Authority.

These local plans are an opportunity to get all the sectors around the table to work out the best ways to deploy public sector resources. This may work if the local authority puts resources into making it happen; perhaps less likely to happen in this era of austerity.

It is harder to start this type of planning at neighbourhood level, because community associations and social enterprises do not usually command the resources local authorities can bring to the table.

However, creative community organisations and social enterprises can bring together partners to work on specific projects.

One of the dilemmas facing many community organisations is mission creep.  If an external organisation brings assets into a neighbourhood, how can the priorities of local residents be honoured under these circumstances?  Can you share stories of creative cross-sectoral work that affirms local priorities?  How did you get back on course after the inevitable drift away from local priorities?

0 Local Associations and the Power They Exercise

I’m drawing on my experience as a community development worker to consider ABCD’s six categories of community assets, and the second is local associations. You can find the full list towards the end of my post, What Are Community Assets?

I note that ABCD adds to local associations “and the power they exercise”. It is easy to experience the power local associations exercise as a liability. So, I’ll start with what can go wrong and go on to explain how their power can be an asset.

Where Does Their Power Come From?

Associations are essentially powerful and the power they exercise is through human minds. The Old and New Testaments identify this power as spiritual power. Angels and demons are not, as most people seem to think, independent beings living in some spiritual realm. They are manifestations of human organisations.

A healthy organisation has a healthy angel and an unhealthy organisation has an unhealthy angel or demon. If you are interested in exploring this further, try Walter Wink’s trilogy of books about the Powers.

The ancients understood the power of organisations in the sense that they empower or possess their members. A healthy organisation strengthens its members and enhances their lives but an unhealthy organisation can be demonic.

How Do Things Go Wrong?

I have seen this many times where the original aims of the organisation are a given and its members cannot see the reality they are in. They genuinely believe they are working for the ends they started with but they no longer know the truth of their activities. When challenged their response will be aggressive, because reality has to be kept at bay to maintain their vision.

Churches are prone to this and if you believe God is on your side, it is immensely difficult to jettison that delusion. To do so is, it seems, to stop believing in God; it is atheism. Atheism of course has its own demons. Not believing in them doesn’t mean they go away!

OK angels and demons may not be your cup of tea (they’re not really mine) but it is helpful to understand what they were before Medieval theologians and Hammer’s House of Horror got hold of them.

So, associations lose power through

Mostly organisations that lose power in these ways become unable to do anything significant. I’m sure much of the violence we see is such unhealthy activity of nations or organisations.

What Does  a Healthy Association Look Like?

0 Local Residents’ Skills

These posts draw on my experience of community development to consider six categories of community assets. This first starts with local residents’ skills. You can find the categories listed towards the end of my post, What Are Community Assets?

Skills Audits

Local residents’ skills might be the most obvious source of community assets, after buildings and equipment. They are in some ways harder to identify, let alone quantify. Here are some reasons for this:

Skills audits are an unmitigated pain. A pain for those who complete the skills audit form and even more of a pain for those who must analyse and make sense of the answers.

Usually you select skills from a long list, based on the needs of some other group of people. You stare at a sea of tick boxes and find you can find hardly any that you can do. You imagine that everyone else is ticking scores of boxes and you are the only person totally lacking these skills.  (The omnicompetent can happily tick all the boxes in certain knowledge they’ll never hear about the form again!)

Furthermore some organisation selects the tick boxes, presumably based on what they think they need, as if skills are somehow independent of the person who owns them. But someone may understand double entry bookkeeping but be unable to add columns of figures or use a spreadsheet; or they might be dishonest and not safe around cash.

Tasks Not Skills

There is a better way. Stop thinking about skills and start to think about the tasks. If you ask someone to do a job, you’re asking a human being with a history and their own specific take on the task at hand. What actually needs doing and who can do it? People who know the tasks that need to be done can offer to have a go.  And of course, and perhaps even better, you can approach people who wouldn’t think of taking on a task and ask them to consider it.  You need a reason for choosing them but it can be inspiring to chosen for who you are and not because you ticked the right box in a skills audit.

Of course, this person may not have all the necessary knowledge, skills and qualities to complete the task. How do you acquire these without opportunities? People can learn and if they take on a task they have an incentive to learn.

Another issue is when you discover they are not doing the task properly. I can remember taking on some jobs and being drowned in masses of information about how to do the job. I couldn’t possibly take it all on board. And most of the information was about the way my predecessor did the job and not particularly necessary.  I needed to work out my approach to the task.  (Predecessors have been very helpful but it does not follow every detail of their approach will work for me.)

You see, the issue is not really about individuals’ skills so much as the way an organisation gets the best out of people.

Sloughing

There is an insight from citizens’ organising, called sloughing. The word is normally used of snakes, when they grow by removing their outermost layers of skin. The idea is that any task in an organisation is an opportunity for someone who is less experienced to grow into. So, you seek someone challenged by the task.

Once they become adept at the task, it is time to move onto another. They move onto a new challenge and vacate the role for someone else.

This may not be possible for every organisation but it is worth some reflection. If you are interested in increasing community assets then don’t look at peoples’ achievements, look at their potential. Maybe not everyone will step up to a challenge but how many skills are never discovered because no-one ever tries to find them?

0 Spirituality in the Radical Agora

I’ve written about the Radical Agora in earlier posts and here I explore the idea in more depth.

The Radical Agora brings together the strands in this blog; community development, marketing and online presence.

I’ve been a community development worker for over thirty years. Apparently, the word community had over 150 definitions in the 1980s and whatever the number is now, it means our understanding of community is contested.  In particular, the local economy rarely figures in assessments of what counts as community.

Agora is Greek for marketplace and I use it because neo-liberals have hijacked the word marketplace. They speak of the marketplace as something in the ether and they use it of transactions between corporations. Let’s dwell on this for a moment and try to understand what’s at stake.

The thing that distinguishes corporations from local businesses is ownership. Corporations belong to shareholders. This means their owners do not run the business. They appoint directors who usually employ a Chief Executive. Their sole task is to increase the value of investments for their shareholders. Profits go to shareholders and often they are tied up in stored wealth.

This is important because this model of ownership has become normative.  The idea that the sole purpose of business is to generate profit does not allow businesses to have other purposes.  Any business person who simply wants to make a living and would plough profit into some benefit for the community will be either suspected of being a secret grasping capitalist or, if they do live up to their declared intentions, they’re not a serious player.

Local businesses may have a variety of ownership models and their transactions are likely to support other local businesses. A greater proportion of their income is likely to be invested in staff.  Paradoxically their small-scale brings greater benefit to the community than profit-generating corporations

I’m using Agora to distinguish between the marketplace based on transactions between bureaucrats that enrich the already rich and powerful and the traditional understanding of marketplace as primarily a place where community develops through financial and other transactions.

The word Radical derives is from radix that means roots. The roots of the marketplace agora are in community, in building relationships. The Radical Agora grows primarily through building relationships.

If the Radical Agora is funded through the local economy, it is sustainable.

Spirituality is important because it describes our presence in the marketplace. We are not there primarily as consumers but as participants in a specific  community.

The marketplace provides space in which unstructured encounters can lead to relationships. It draws people in for all sorts of reasons and they make purchases as they go about their activities.

We all need to be present in these spaces for the benefit of all, assuming these spaces exist. To take part is not solely about financial transactions, although financial transactions are an important way of being present. All activities have an economic dimension and as they draw people into participation in the Agora, they build community and support its infrastructure.

We have been careless about what makes our communities live. We have allowed outsiders to invade and take away community in the name of consumerism. We are compelled to visit leisure centres full of shops on the outskirts of our cities, making purchases that mainly benefit those who own the centres and shops.

The challenge is how to re-build our communities. That will be the next theme after the Christmas break!

2 Prayer in the Marketplace

Over the last couple of weeks I have explored incarnation in the neighbourhood and incarnation online. Whilst my last post was about working online, my primary focus is spirituality and community development in the local economy. Is there room for prayer in the marketplace?

Let me be clear about what I am not writing about. For many years, a man used to walk up and down Fargate, the main shopping street in Sheffield City Centre, wearing a sandwich board proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was nigh and so we were all doomed. He has many successors and to this day there are often preachers and music groups, reminding us of our sinfulness.

They are one of the few ways the original spirit of the marketplace is still expressed in our modern so-called secular world.  Whilst their practice may be close to my vision of the radical agora where all human interactions focus, it is not what I mean by prayer in the marketplace. It is not that they offer an alternative to shopping so much as they contribute to the mix of activities that should be present in any city centre.

So too are the churches, including Cathedrals that offer a place for prayer, a space to take time out and sit quietly. Perhaps they support prayer in the marketplace but what they offer is not exactly what I mean.

Prayer in the Marketplace

So, what do I mean by prayer in the marketplace? What is prayer? There are many definitions and my Christian friends are likely to disagree with me. Prayer is simply being present. It is being aware of what is happening around you. It is in essence being incarnate, present and in the flesh.

The marketplace is the community in which businesses operate. Our neo-liberal economy has worked tirelessly over many years to drain common spaces of community. Spending no longer benefits the immediate neighbourhood, as multi-nationals extract money from circulation.

So, prayer is being present in this travesty of a marketplace and being aware not only of the destruction wreaked on our communities by unaccountable corporations but also of the green shoots of community fighting back.

The marketplace is, for communities, their heart. Maybe the heart is torn from many neighbourhoods but what else can replace the marketplace?

Sheffield as an Example

Look at Sheffield. The post-war rebuilding resulted by the 1960s in Sheffield City Centre being the best in the UK outside of London. Then they built Meadowhall, an out-of-town shopping centre, and since then the city centre has struggled to fight back. The corporations moved out of the centre and into Meadowhall. Many towns within about an hour’s drive of Meadowhall suffered a similar decline.

Not only are the corporations unreliable but they create what are sometimes called clone towns. Go anywhere and you find the same shops. Places lose their distinctiveness and become vulnerable to rapid decline once the corporations decide the town can no longer support their presence.

Being present, allows us to see all this and where there are green shoots, initiatives that need support. More than that it is those who are present who see new potential and can call on the authorities to change policies.

For example, if business rates are high, expecting the return of the corporations, perhaps local authorities can make premises available to local businesses on more affordable terms.

When we walk through our streets, we must be aware of the human need around us. Some of this need is obvious but how many people are there because they are seeking community, in the only place they know to look?

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go, downtown
When you’ve got worries all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help I know, downtown

0 Hermeneutics in the Marketplace

The Greek God Hermes gave his name to the study of how ancient texts speak to the present.  Hermes was the God of doctors, merchants, travellers and thieves – as far as I can remember.  As such it is fitting we encounter hermeneutics in the marketplace; perhaps there is no better place for it!

Christian academic theology comprises two main activities:

The hermeneutical challenge is to avoid two approaches that do not do justice to either the text or present day human beings:

What we need is a materialist reading of the texts.  This may seem odd.  Surely these are spiritual texts?  They are spiritual but if you think that means these texts are not materialist then you have not understood the meaning of spirituality.

The Christian story is not one of humanity becoming more like God; a path leads to totalitarian readings.  It is the story of God becoming human and so showing us how to be human.

Hermeneutics belong in the marketplace because the Old and New Testaments are preoccupied with money and community.  The marketplace is where these texts test us.  Even the relatively few texts about sex are usually primarily concerned about money and inequality.  Sexual exploitation is an economic activity after all.

The challenge we all face is how to live in community.  We all face temptation to use financial power to our own advantage.  This can be subtle, appearing to be the usual way of doing things.  One major difficulty, when challenging neo-liberal assumptions, is to most people it is simply the way things are.  They meet any challenge with incomprehension, which usually manifests as an attack on some unrelated issue.

Hermeneutical Circulation

One well-known way of allowing ancient texts to challenge our assumptions is by using the hermeneutical circulation.  Here reflection follows each activity and informs the next.  It circulates from action to reflection to action and each turn of the cycle brings us somewhere new.  (The word cycle is often used but it implies a return to the same place.)  The texts aid reflection by introducing new perspectives.

A simple way of doing this is a three-step reflection:

Snaps – I have just experienced something, does it remind me of a story or any passage in Scripture?

Starters – turn to the passage or passages you identified and find out as much as you can, especially what they meant when written and how people have interpreted them since.  (This is exegesis!)

Spin-offs – do these studies lead to new insights that might change my next action?

I’ve prepared this post in support of my sequence of posts about spirituality in the marketplace.  It is also a precursor to my review of a book about Christian understanding of economics that should appear next week.

1 Incarnation Online

Obviously, incarnation online is a contradiction.  Last Wednesday I discussed why being physically present, “in the flesh” or incarnate is important.

And last Friday, I explored one aspect of this in more detail.  Imbricated roles explores degrees of overlap of physical presence with the formal role of community development. The possibilities range from living in the neighbourhood through to development work without setting foot in the neighbourhood.

The post lists several meaningful ways a development worker can operate without physical presence, including online development work.

Incarnation Online?

Incarnation means “in the flesh”, so is it possible to be truly present online? I market my business as Community Development Online, is this a practical possibility?

On the face of it, it is impossible to be present in any meaningful sense if your relationship is solely online. There is always value in visiting a neighbourhood, even once, to get a sense of how things are and to meet the people.  We pick up many visual and other clues from people and even a video link cannot offer the same experience.

However, this needs to be balanced with the unparalleled access we have via the Internet to people and communities all over the world. It extends our reach and makes sharing experiences all over the world possible.

So, let’s approach this from another angle.

Walking Alongside

I mentioned in last Wednesday’s post that incarnation is “walking alongside” in the sense that followers of Jesus embody Jesus in the practical things they do to support people around them.

George Lovell’s non-directive consultancy for community and church workers, known as AVEC, supported many workers from all over the UK in the 70s and 80s. Lovell did not visit every community he helped. He was able to get alongside practitioners, who were the people present in their communities.

They were people committed to a particular neighbourhood and so were present there. Where the coach or consultant walks alongside the development worker, communicating online does not make a great deal of difference.

Trust

The big issue for any business is trust. The local business builds trusting relationships, perhaps over years.  It is more difficult online. There are many methods websites use to help visitors know like and trust an online business, eg telling personal stories, sharing testimonials, blogging, videos. Whilst these all have their place, the one thing that can really build relationships is personal contact; besides Skype there are many online conferencing facilities.

There are many successful businesses offering coaching over a huge range of activities and it means a coach can extend their reach to practically anywhere in the world.  There is little evidence this is inferior. The skills of the coach are far more important than proximity of coach and client.

Yes, using the Internet to deliver coaching services does mean there is less personal contact. This can be a disadvantage but there are advantages too. Working together on a document or website, may actually be easier online.

One strength of working online is there is less temptation, especially prevalent among development workers, to take over the role of the local person.

Perhaps this is a poor image of God! Many religious people do see God as distant and walking alongside, despite the Christian understanding of God in flesh, living and dying with us.

We must remember everything we encounter online is a machine, not a living thing. Its purpose is to help us live our lives and not replace them with worlds we create in our heads.

The postal service in the past supported relationships that might have ended had they not been able to communicate. The web is a bigger more complex and more seductive version of the same thing.

3 Incarnation and Community Development

Incarnation and community development may seem an incongruous title. However, the debate about the degree to which development workers need to belong to the neighbourhood where they work has been around for several decades.  Should they live there?  Are they one of the people or a guide or mentor?

The theological term, incarnation may help us understand this debate.  It implies total commitment and so certainly challenges my experience.  I’ve found total commitment can lead to confusion between the roles of development workers and local activists.

Incarnation

Incarnation means literally “of the flesh”, “carne” being the root of words like “carnivore”.

Theologians use the word to describe the doctrine that Jesus was both God and human. The exact nature of this union of God and human was the subject of much debate during the early Christian centuries. The issue was apparently resolved at the Council of Chalcedon. I say apparently because it led to the first of the major divisions in the Christian church.  (Follow the link to find out why it’s best not to get involved in this debate!)

I’m not going into this in detail because I want to focus on the impact of the doctrine on real life.

Whatever the detailed nature of God’s presence in flesh, it implies some basic things:

Of these my view is physical presence is far and away the most important. Christian teaching has always been about the immediate presence of God, as one who walks alongside.  Those who believe in or befriend God embody that presence.

Theresa’s Prayer

Many will know the prayer of St Theresa of Avila:

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours …”

What does this actually mean? There are debates between those who believe we must offer God our hearts and those who believe our minds are more important. The latter emphasise belief is important. The former emphasise love.

If what you believe is all important, you are likely to be fundamentalist in your theology. Your problem is the extent to which you are able to cope with challenges to your chosen belief. Ultimately can you cope with reality?

With the heart, the orientation is to a romantic view of faith. The problem here is love rarely begins with attraction. It begins with action and emotional love may follow.

What we learn from the doctrine of incarnation is feet are important, not hearts or minds. Wherever your feet are, there too are your head and heart. St Theresa says as much in the second part of her prayer:

“… yours are the eyes through which Christ compassion cares for the people of this world, yours are the feet through which Christ goes about doing good and yours are the hands through which Christ now brings a blessing.”

Note how Theresa makes incarnational life concrete (or flesh!)  It isn’t head and heart but the practical bits of the body that count.

Community Development

There is a debate among community development workers about imbricated roles. Imbricated means overlapped, in the sense that tiles on a roof must overlap to be watertight.  (I can’t find anything online that uses this term.  Nested roles seem to be closest but has specific management connotations.  “Skills in Neighbourhood Work” by Henderson and Thomas uses this term, at least it was in earlier editions!)

Is a development worker more effective if the worker lives in the community where they work? When I started as a development worker, I believed the answer was obviously yes and indeed it may be yes for many successful development workers.

It didn’t work for me. I discovered community development works as a walk alongside a community; it is not served by pretending to be part of it. People need to understand your role and some distance helps everyone understand it.

Being physically present is essential but also separation in some way helps. When you bring a valued external perspective into a neighbourhood, it doesn’t help to identify totally with the neighbourhood.

Your presence is important. How you practice being present depends on your skill and experience as a development worker. It would be interesting for workers to compare notes on how they walk alongside so that they are present in without becoming of the neighbourhood.

A really interesting question is: does this make community development online impossible? I’ll discuss this next time.