Community Informatics
My friend, the artist Ryan Griffis, took this photograph of a telephone pole covered with staples and bits of paper from fliers, posters, and remnants of announcements past. With it, I am trying to capture the essence of community informatics–a phrase that brings a puzzled look to many a face. This is an image of messy vitality, of conviviality. Imagine the meetings, the missing pets, the items for sale, and the interconnections that all these staples represent. This image probably does not “sell” community informatics adequately, but perhaps it will prompt others to choose their own depiction. What follows is a list of phrases that I came up with in an effort to get at some key concepts of CI.
SELF DETERMINATION
COMMUNITY INQUIRY
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
SERVICE LEARNING
ADVOCACY for EQUITY
URBAN STUDIO
RURAL STUDIO
ALTERNATE UNIVERSITY
“COEXISTING HETEROGENEITY” (Doreen Massey)
RELATIONAL AESTHETICS
SOCIAL ECOLOGY
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
CONVIVIALITY
ARTS OF INQUIRY
COMMUNITY CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
ACTION RESEARCH
PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
ENGAGED LEARNING
ETHICAL ENGAGEMENT
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
RECIPROCITY
GLOCAL
EDUCATIONAL DEMOCRACY
DEMOCRACY AS DISCUSSION
GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING
COLLABORATION
EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE
INTERDISCIPLINARY/TRANSDISCIPLINARY
DISTRIBUTED KNOWLEDGE
DISTRIBUTED CREATIVITY
INNOVATION DIFFUSION
OUTREACH/INREACH
CRITICAL THINKING
MESSY VITALITY
SITE-BASED STUDENT LEARNING
DISTANCE LEARNING
SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Publico transitorio
The website for the eight-day moving public event between Los Angeles, San Diego and Tijuana–Political Equator 2– is now online. It looks terrific and represents, in a phenomenal way, the collaborative possibilities of artists, scholars, and designers coming together around issues of common concern.
Time flies, racism persists
This is a photo I took in the 1990s, looking down on a wannabe headdress that was floating in Boneyard Creek. Back then it seemed like the University of Illinois mascot, Chief Illiniwek, would never go away. Yesterday, when Illinois played Michigan here, I still saw Chief Tshirts, bumper stickers, and flags everywhere. The Chief has been “retired.” What a long way we have to go.
Boneyard Creek has been channelized and paved over along most of its length. Racism too seems to be running underneath the whole community, buried or ignored by many, all too evident for many others.
