Diversity: A Community Perspective

Students of Badger Rock Middle School break ground for
the Resilience Research Center, which will house the school
starting this summer. Eighty percent of students come from
the surrounding neighborhoods. Residents of that community
say their children mix easily with children of different cultures.
The adults don’t mix as readily, and residents said focusing
on commonalities – not just differences – may help
connect the community. (Photo by Daniel Norlindh)

The Center for Resilient Cities believes diversity – defined as a variability of biology, landscape, economy and social organization – is fundamental to resilience. Looking at the social side of diversity, we went into the community to find out how they interpret diversity and what value they believe it has.
 

We talked with community residents who will have a stake in the Resilience Research Center on Madison’s southwest side. They talked about diversity as it applies to housing, employment, natural resources, ethnicity, age, race, socio-economic status, sexual preference, local business and educational opportunity.
 

One resident connected diversity to community growth: “It brings more options, more light, more possibilities. … It affirms the things I know and tells me what I don’t know. It’s life-affirming.”
 

But, one resident made this comment: “Diversity is not a strength in itself. You need to make use of it. Now, it is something we have on the shelf; we don’t use it.” When I mentioned this comment in conversation with other residents, many agreed. “My children mix easily with children of different backgrounds, but there is much less mixing among adults.”
 

Residents also talked about challenges diversity brings. They described the community as “socially splintered” and “spatially fractured,” because the community is divided spatially and socially by income, age and ethnicity. They talked about the lack of interaction between people living in the rental properties and homeowners, between seniors living in senior housing and youth, between low- and middle-income residents, between African-American and Hispanic residents.
 

Community residents saw this as a problem. They want to know other people and what they value, their interests and whether they plan to stay in the community. They want to know about commonalities – not just differences. Then they would feel more connected rather than divided.

 
So how do we bridge these divisions and make connections? Many agreed with one resident’s suggestion: “We need to know other people’s histories, experiences and aspirations.”
 

As a practitioner, how is diversity expressed in your work? Which type of diversity is of most concern? Do you have other suggestions for bridging the divisions and building connections?
 

Next week, we get down on the ground. Instead of talking about resilience, we see it in action. I’ll be looking at community gardens where much more than growing food is taking place.

Communicating Resilience: Words, Pictures, Voices

We’ve spent a lot of time looking at the words around resilience; now let’s talk about incorporating images. Pictures are powerful tools that could help engage a wider audience in resilience learning and practice.

A picture from The Lexicon of Sustainability
that features one of our partners: Growing Power.

On the Lexicon of Sustainability website words become the building blocks of new sustainable solutions – words such as: back yard pollinators, urban farms, methane digesters, pasture-raised, vermiculture, biodiversity and carbon footprint. These words express choices about how we live, but they’re also answers to specific questions. How is this produced? Where was this made? Who made it?

Understanding Resilience: "Thriving Beyond Sustainability"

Recently, Marcia Caton Campbell, Milwaukee Director of the Center for Resilient Cities, brought this book to our attention: Thriving Beyond Sustainability: Pathways to a Resilient Society, by Andrés R. Edwards. According to the author, what we find in the book is inspiration and catalytic ideas for social, economic and environmental change. The inspiration comes from stories of small and large initiatives undertaken by people, organizations and communities around the world. Rejuvenating, restoring and reinventing are key themes in moving toward a thriveable future.

What is Resilience?

With over 30 million hits on Google, it seems resilience has arrived. But the search continues for a definition of resilience that applies to its varied contexts and situations.

Recovery, bouncing back, re-grouping or coping come up as definitions of resilience. Yet, if significant social, economic or environmental change can transform a whole community, are such words adequate to explain resilience? Maybe resilience is more about shaping change, not just adapting to it.

One of our favorite definitions of resilience at the Center for Resilient Cities comes from the book Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change by Peter Newman, Timothy Beatley and Heather Boyer: