While I’m really enjoying the feedback on Barbara Ganley’s digital workshop, I’d also like to offer an alternate prompt for this week, following up on last Thursday’s discussion.  Here it comes.

What are your reflections about how we can make our projects in this course most collaborative and most meaningful for Starksboro residents?  To frame this another way, how can we make it most likely that folks in Starksboro will feel a sense of ownership in our work, rather than just admiring the final projects as impressive work by Middlebury students?

I’ve felt extremely lucky with the pertinence and suggestiveness of our first two books on the syllabus.  Though Diane and I, along with the Orton folks, have put lots of time into thinking about this course it’s still new terrain.  I was afraid these books might feel thematically relevant but, on a concrete level, not so useful.  In part because of people’s really perceptive remarks inclass, though, Listening Is an Act of Love significantly deepened the emotional, generational, and spiritual context for our interviews and projects.  We’ll be having our first discussion of Better Together in just a few minutes.  But the first half of the book will clearly do a lot to hone our goals.  Very exciting!

Here’s one crucial distinction from the intro (p. 2):  “Some networks link people who are similar in crucial respects and tend to be inward-looking–bonding social capital.  Others encompass different types of people and tend to be outward-looking–bridging social capital. . .  Bonding social capital is a kind of sociological Super Glue, whereas bridging social capital provides a sociological WD-40.  If you get sick, the people who bring you chicken soup are likely to represent your bonding social capital.  On the other hand, a society that has only bonding social capital will look Belfast or Bosnia–segregated into mutually hostile camps.”

These will be useful terms to keep in mind as we proceed, both in discussion and on the ground in Starksboro.