Beverly Wenger-Trayner’s old Eudaimonia blog post “What makes something a place?” is no longer online but in my archives of draft blog posts, this bit of text was saved. It seems to elegantly follow the words of Gardner Cambell in yesterday’s post, that I’m adding it into the slip stream. What do you think, Bev? Your description still resonates for me
Funny, I have been thinking about “place” related to another line of inquiry, and that is place as a recognizable border when I feel I am shifting between community and network. In my networks, I don’t feel the absence of place, but instead focus more on PULSE. In community, and even moreso in TEAM when I am intricately reliant on my partners, place becomes MUCH more central.
In communities of practices, I think I slip between place and pulse. Hm, I think I need to think about this concept some more and blog about it. After I do more housecleaning. (On a roll. Painting.)
Network. Resonance. Place. Pulse. There is something there….
I love this thread you started yesterday and are continuing today, Nancy. It’s interesting how, in both of these cases, the emphasis is on structure. Structure obviously has a huge role to play, but I think we all too often lose sight of the central question, which is about creating that sense of resonance, vibrancy, aliveness in groups. Things that are alive have pulses! Everyone knows that, right? And yet, how often do groups ask that question?