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No I assumed it because you are human. It would be very hard for you to really know a place and its community inside out without spending years there.
Our definitions of community conflict then.
I don't need to know a community inside and out to be part of it and make good connections. I've been in Nanjing for less than a year and already I have some really great friends and we have places we hang out at frequently. What we have is probably temporary but it doesn't make it any less of a community, and once we have gone our separate ways we'll still be in touch. If I go back to Canada, it's not important for me to know what my friend in Nanjing is doing every day, but it's enough for me to think about Nanjing and immediately think of the face of my good friend. I have community here.
As for really "knowing" a place... it depends on what you want to know and what you wish to accomplish there in the time you have. Any given place has a lot of stuff... I could spend a lifetime in China and still not have scratched the surface if I were just floating about.
I meant owed as in what is best for individual and social health. I think there is a subjective element but a large objective and social one as well.
My definition of community differs from yours and I feel pretty healthy.
Well I use it rather loosely but simply someone who wants to break down a lot of barriers and have people consider themselves larger and larger units.
What do you mean by larger and larger units?
As in you see and experience the people and place in your everyday working and recreational and general existence.
And you generally won't be able to know these one's as well as would be best if you don't spend a long time there.
I tend to spend a year minimum in the places I go, but even in places where I have spent less time, I've met some great people who I am still in contact with and who want to meet up with me in the future. I don't have to know those people for a long time to still care about them.
I met a Buddhist in Thailand who said to me: some friendships last a day, and some last lifetimes. Work with the time that you have rather than to focus on not having enough time.
For me, I don't HAVE to spend years in a place to make important connections with people.
It would be far less true if you lived there. When you live there the culture, region and people form part of your daily existence, if community is present of course.
Depends on where you live, I suppose, but I have never been in a place where I knew everyone there and, generally, what was going on. Even within communities there are smaller "locales" of people who are tightly woven. Its those niches that I tend to be part of, and the ones I remain connected to after I've left.
Not really. In a proper community my neighbour would know me for years, he'd know the same people I did, he'd know the same land and be of the same culture and local traditions. It would be very different.
Again, we have different definitions of what community means to us. I've done this exercise before in an official capacity with an organization I used to volunteer with. We had a round table with people from all over the world, and every one of them had a different definition.
One size does not fit all, but I respect your definition.
Yes but if you are an outsider who only spends a few months in a place I don't see how you can build the necessary connections to place and people.
I found the more I've travelled the easier it has become. A lot of what prevents the connections from happening are things like the initial culture shock, not feeling like you have a secure base for your basic needs, etc. With more travel experience, these things take less of your time, and you get into the local culture much more readily. At least, that is how it has worked for me.
I think a degree of mental divisions are good as long as they don't become too all consuming and narrow. This means that the local people are able to stand up for their rights and liberties against encroachment. I actually think though localism and regionalism help to guard against the "bigoted" and overly negative divisionism that you speak of. They are based on areas far more real to the individual and far less involved in power relations and such. I mean English nationalists are very interested in the power and glory of England measured usually in terms of size, economy and military power and influence but what does a man of Dorset or Wessex care about that. A small-scale patriot is not too interested in whether his region has the greatest armed forces or diplomatic influence but more its culture and society.
You're talking more on a political level now... I was talking more on a personal level.
The problem is that if one travels to see other local cultures then these will be very negatively effected by attitudes or at least realities that remove cultural significance completely from the local and regional area. It will likely just further the McDonaldisation of these cultures.
It depends on the place, the person going there, and the society at large, really. Even in the most xenophobic places, there are always people who are curious about the outside and, given the chance, would do their own exploring. I find the idea that a locale's culture belongs to it and it alone, and that no other people should "interfere", to be highly arrogant and ignorant. Instead of seeing a traveller as another human being coming to learn about them, they see them as an alien who is nothing like them. Even in xenophobic places, I have managed to have positive interactions with people which make them reconsider their views.
The other day one of my English students said that he hates the Japanese. All of them, no exception. I asked him, "So, if a Japanese person walked into the room right now, you would hate them?" He said yes. I said, so... what do you think about people who hate the Chinese? All of them, no exception. I said, "Do you think all Chinese deserve to be hated?" He paused. Somehow, this example changed his world view, because it brought the issue home for him.
If you are talking about corporate powers and big governments engaging in neo-imperialism, that's different. I'm talking about me, alone, travelling to a place.