Equity-Linked Affinity Network

63 Pages·2009·0.64 MB·English

ÉLAN
Equity-Linked Affinity Network
Interpersonal Process, Financial Structures and Legal
Designs for Landed, Spirited, Joyous Urban Community
A. Allen Butcher
June, 2005
IC
ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected] 1
Fourth World Services, P.O. Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666 [phone]
ÉLAN: Equity-LinkedA ffinity Networks
Contents:
Introduction: ÉLAN Community. . . . . . . . . 3
ÉLAN: Equity-Linked Affinity Networks . . . . . . . 4
Communitarianism in a Market Culture . . . . . . . . 5
Interpersonal and Group Process . . . . . . . . 13
Process Tools
Ultimate Vehicle Family: Heart Sharing
Housemates Spectral Affinity Analysis
Movement for a New Society: Clearness Process - Joining / Leaving Clearness
The Fellowship versus the Bilderberg Group
Explaining a Real World Contest for Hearts and Minds via Allegorical Tales . . 23
Financial Structures for Community . . . . . . . . 28
Financing Program - Equity Sharing
Financing Programs - Limited-Equity Cooperative and Community Land Trust (CLT)
Financing Program - Revolving Loan Fund
Walnut Street Co-op Community Revolving Loan Fund
Sample Loan Agreement
Financial Resources - Loan Sources
Legal Designs for Collective Community . . . . . . . 33
Legal Resources
Forms of Legal Organization Used by Intentional Communities
From the Colorado Revised Statutes:
Limited Liability Company
Limited Liability Partnerships & Limited Liability Limited Partnerships
Limited Partnership Association
Cooperative Corporation
Non-Profit Corporation
Sample Documents
Partnership Agreement - Tiospaye . . . . . . . 39
Cooperative Corporation - Walnut Street Cooperative Bylaws . . . . 42
From Legalese to English: An Explanation of Walnut St. Co-op Bylaws
State of Oregon Articles of Incorporation
Cooperative Corporation - Masala House Bylaws . . . . . 51
A Selection from the Masala House Rules
Cooperative Corporation - EarthArt Village Bylaws . . . . . 55
Articles of Incorporation: EarthArt Village, a Cooperative Association
Thanks to all those who have contributed material for this publication.
May your work be an inspiration and an aid to those building the communitarian lifestyle.
Further Resources:
Additional material expanding upon what is presented here, including interpersonal and group process, legal
structures, theory, history and values of intentional community, can be found at: www.culturemagic.org
Disclaimer:
Although communities have managed to incorporate without the services of a lawyer, it is essential that good
information and advice be obtained in order to avoid problems. This paper may only be used as an introduc-
tion, and no guarantees may be assumed concerning the use of the information presented.
2 ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected]
Introduction: ÉLAN Community
This paper is intended to support the founding and Given that the market system has tended to destroy
growth of intentional communities in which there is no community, the reverse co-optation process of using
commonly-owned property, meaning that member's market capitalism to create communitarianism
housing payments go into equity accounts which they essentially involves fighting fire with fire, turning the
take with them when they leave. Such communities tables to use the force of market economics against
may be described as involving the sharing of itself. This could be said to utilize a form of "culture
privately-owned property, which for this author is also magic" in the deliberate effort to change both con-
the definition for the term "collective community." sciousness and culture. Introducing the basic ele-
ments of that process is the intent for this publication,
For those interested in forms of intentional community presented in three primary sections offering models
which involve the accumulation of commonly-owned for interpersonal and group process, financial strate-
property, information can be found at: gies and legal designs.
www.culturemagic.org/TimeBasedEconomics.html
As an acronym, the name ÉLAN could be said to link
Although cohousing is discussed in the following the three important aspects of community; the social
article "Communitarianism in a Market Culture," the bonds or affinities that define a community, the
intent of this paper is to focus on forms of community wealth or equity owned by it or its members, espe-
that are less expensive than cohousing, and therefore cially with regard to land, and the system of gover-
accessible to more people. This would tend to nance that manages the group or network of groups.
emphasize collective households, yet the ideal and
goal may be more toward the "urban cooperative The original concept for ÉLAN, and the term itself,
block" or "urban ecovillage" as represented by the was developed in 1995. It remained dormant until
graphic on the cover of this publication. world events and contemporary American culture
progressed along their respective historical cycles to
Community projects involving the remodeling of where interest in communitarianism showed signs of
several existing structures on one block would be beginning to build toward a new wave of movement
similar to "retro-fit cohousing," yet if the properties activity. Such waves have occured many times in the
involved in such a community are not contiguous but past, in America and Europe in particular, such as
scattered around a city or town, or if such a commu- during the 1960s and '70s, and it was only a matter of
nity were to involve on-site businesses or a particular time until another would begin to build. The beginning
spiritual or cultural orientation (other than that of the of the 21st Century is very similar in many ways to
dominant culture), the term "cohousing" would not be the mid '60s. Also, with the many successful commu-
appropriate. Thus the need to create a new term for nitarian movements and traditions that have survived
a different form of intentional community. from earlier waves, there are now various models
available for working to build the next wave of
The term "èlan" works well for community as it communitarianism. This paper draws from those to
suggests enthusiasm in pursuing a mission. The word present some of the specific tools most useful for
is from the French for a lancer exhibiting esprit de urban intentional community, with many more models
corp. As the term refers to a militaristic brashness it and tools available among various other sources.
is good to adapt it to the communitarian culture as
that is one of the themes of this paper, adapting what More detail on the subjects introduced in this paper
originally supported the values of competition and are available as free PDF file downloads at the
possessiveness to the support of the communitarian website: www.CultureMagic.org For process
values of sharing and cooperation. The first article in material see: "Light and Shadows." For incorporation:
this paper addresses the transformation of aspects of "Community, Inc." For land trusts: "Geonomics and
the dominant culture into forms of communitarianism, Community Power." For nonmonetary economies:
specifically by utilizing the market system to support "Time-Based Economics." More topics to follow,
the creation of community. including children, families, education and ritual.
ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected] 3
ÉLAN: Equity-Linked A ffinity Networks
The ÉLAN community design involves building a from paying rent as quickly as possible. When people
joyous, loving, peaceful, sharing culture, expressing leave the ÉLAN community they may have their full
these values with a style and flair reflecting our equity account (or limited-equity in some cases) paid
personal and collective talents in different affinity to them according to a formula and schedule agreed
groups. upon when the member joined. This encourages each
resident of an ÉLAN property to care for it as they
After people, the second essential aspect of commu- would their own.
nity is land. A community must have places for
people to live, work and play, and so acquiring shared The practice of shared real estate equity in the
real estate is an important community-building ÉLAN community uses the dominant economic
activity. By sharing ownership of the land and system's dynamics in a way that creates and nurtures
avoiding paying rent, a group of people may build a community, rather than breaking down our connec-
community of mutual support and land stewardship. tions with one another and "atomizing" society.
Urban Community The accumulation of appreciated value of ÉLAN
properties or real estate is available for the commu-
The ÉLAN community proposal is to create a form of nity to use for acquiring additional properties, permit-
community to be part of the larger alternative net- ting more ÉLAN community members to move from
work of a given urban/suburban area, which may be paying rent to paying into equity accounts. All
called the "Parallel Culture." A parallel culture is one members have a role in deciding how the aggregate
that exists within a larger, dominant culture, express- equity accounts are invested for the good of the
ing a different set of values while developing along affinity group or community. The group can also
with the larger culture, on different yet parallel tracks. decide whether or when a member of an ÉLAN
affinity group can make a withdrawl (cash out) from
For the ÉLAN community a primary value is sharing their account for private purposes. When members
land ownership and real estate equity. This sharing of leave they may take their equity out of the ÉLAN
land value is a way to use the dominant culture's affinity group or community, or offer it as a loan.
economic system to build the parallel culture. Creat-
ing a community of affinity groups sharing real estate Using real estate equity to build community through
equity affirms the values of social and of environmen- the ÉLAN proposal is just one way to turn the
tal responsibility. dominant economic system of possessiveness and
competition into a parallel culture economic system of
Intentioneering the Parallel Culture with ÉLAN sharing and cooperation.
Culturally engineering an intentional community, or An affinity group or community of affinity groups can
"intentioneering" is the deliberate effort to live by the decide to place some of their land into a community
values of our choice, rather than the values of the land trust, removing it from the real estate market.
dominant culture. Members can also start cooperative or worker-owned
businesses, perhaps on ÉLAN property. And the
The ÉLAN community or "equity-linked affinity community can use a time economy of labor sharing
networks" uses real estate equity as a community for domestic work, and expand it into property
asset to be shared and stewarded for the good of the maintenance and construction, income-producing
affinity group. And if extended among several businesses and more. The ÉLAN time economy
affinity groups, this equity is shared for the good of an could also connect with other time economies around
entire ÉLAN community. the country for such benefits as a major medical
disaster fund, business loan funds, labor exchanges,
In the ÉLAN proposal, each person's housing pay- outreach and other mutually beneficial projects.
ments go into equity accounts, moving people away
4 ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected]
Communitarianism in a Market Culture
Intentional community itself will likely always be a Other communitarian values may include neighbor-
parallel society, moving through time apace with the hood forums to resolve disputes or address challenges
dominant culture, the two influencing each other in from both within and outside of the community,
sometimes subtle, sometimes fundamentally challeng- alternative dispute resolution, neighborhood-based
ing ways. Both the dominant and the parallel cultures primary health care services, and architectural and
have always adapted or co-opted what each found to site designs that facilitate interactions among neigh-
be of value in the other, and ignored or discarded bors, the development of friendships, and resulting
what it disliked or did not understand. The opportu- "random kindness and senseless acts of beauty."
nity in this relationship for the communities movement
is to develop a concerted effort to nurture that Trust, Social, Spiritual and
dynamic for the benefit of all. Environmentally Responsible Luxuries
As intentional communities can be seen to be re- There is quite a list of luxuries inherent in community.
search and development centers for society, the Consider the priceless value of the peace of mind that
movement challenges the dominant culture to ac- comes with knowing on a first name basis everyone
knowledge the innovations found in community as in your neighborhood, because you talk and work with
opportunities for positive cultural change. Intentional them regularly as a matter of course in day-to-day
community in general exists as a response to the living. This we might call a "trust luxury." The
perceived problems or inadequacies of the dominant informal ambience of the common facilities such as
culture, and with that the movement can generate for food service, child care, workshops and agricul-
some excitement around the idea of communitarian ture we might call a "social luxury."
lifestyles as activist vocations!
Consider the luxury of inter-generational community,
Communitarian values, increasingly discussed by in which both young and old are encouraged to care
theorists on all points of the political spectrum, stress for the other. More than mere luxury, compared to
the benefits to all when individuals acknowledge the usual pattern of age segregation in America, this
responsibility to a social group larger than the immedi- is cultural elegance. Consider too how much more
ate family. Some of the perspectives on this include completely than living separately does the fellowship
the work of M. Scott Peck (see: The Road Less of community come to the spiritual ideals of brother-
Traveled, 1978 and A Different Drum, 1987), and of hood and sisterhood, of living by the Golden Rule, or
The Communitarian Network (see: Amitai Etzioni, of practicing a love-thy-neighbor ethic. The opportu-
The Spirit of Community: The Reinvention of nity of conforming our lifestyle to our spiritual ideals
American Society, Touchstone, 1993). can be cast as a "spiritual luxury" that not many
outside of community enjoy. This is in addition to the
As fifty years of the post-war housing industry has obvious potential for quantifying how much more
shown, communitarian values are luxuries that we do ecologically responsible than tract-house-living
not absolutely need if all that we are trying to do is community can be; perhaps this one we would call an
acquire housing. Today, however, the challenge is to "environmentally responsible luxury."
build a social fabric that provides, in addition to mere
shelter, a culture that engenders in the individual an An additional luxury is how people living in commu-
awareness of and appreciation for others, and for the nity have a kinship with people in other communities
environment that we all share. around the country. The networking carried on among
communities builds relationships that provide friends
Communitarian values include a safe and mutually for us to visit while on vacation, even potentially
beneficial environment for children and seniors, around the world. Call this one a "holiday luxury." The
community food service and childcare, landscaping point to be stressed is that community, and communi-
for common areas, building and auto maintenance and tarian values, are luxuries that money alone cannot
various collective services involving people working buy; they are priceless commodities that we should be
together for mutual advantage and greater efficiency. careful not to undervalue.
ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected] 5
Promoting the communitarian values experienced in tion than the old city centers.
intentional community is an opportunity for us to take
advantage of the greatest set of new-found luxuries By the 1970's, ... (s)even out of ten households
since the invention of indoor plumbing. In a sense, lived in single-family homes ... on long mort-
what we want to do is repeat history, at least that part gages. Builders and industrialists in the 1970's
of our history that led to the replication of housing continued to glorify the Victorian home a century
design innovations across our country and increas- beyond its time. . . . They used mass media to
ingly around the world. Understanding how we glorify this accomplishment as progress and to
arrived at our fabled American Dream of ubiquitous befuddle the housewife. ... As Meredith Tax
suburban monocultural design can help us to build a wrote about the housewife's day in 1970: "I
marketing plan for the diffusion of the innovations of seem to be involved in some mysterious process"
communitarian design throughout the world. (Hayden, 1981, pp 23-26).
The Classic American Dream In 1990 the total of detached houses and trailers
equaled 66.2% of all housing units (U.S. Bureau of
One authority on the American Dream is Dolores the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United
Hayden of the Graduate School of Architecture and States: 1994, pp 735).
Urban Planning, University of California at Los
Angeles. In her works, The Grand Domestic Revo- Today there are many programs to help families
lution (MIT Press, 1981) and Redesigning the acquire housing, and home ownership is an election
American Dream (W.W. Norton, 1984), she outlines time quality-of-life issue. Bringing communitarian
how the housing industry came to be the defining values into this picture, countering generations of
feature of American culture. In The Grand Domestic acculturation to the paradigm of home as moated
Revolution, Ms. Hayden points out that period castle, is the challenge we face as we work to create
visionaries at the turn of the century expected that a community-building industry. As monumental a task
technological advances in home appliances would be as this may seem, Dolores Hayden suggests that this
employed to create collective domestic services in is not a new idea, "For hundreds of years, when
large residential complexes and facilitate the social as individuals thought about putting an end to social
well as political equality of women and men. problems, they designed model towns to express their
desire, not model homes." (Hayden, 1984, pp 18)
Instead, these innovations were miniaturized as
consumer commodities to fill individual households, With respect to the lessons of the past concerning the
with consumption defined by advertisers as a "patri- creation of new industries, we ought now to define a
otic duty," followed by "Mr. Homeowner" marrying "community mystique" in terms of communitarian
"Mrs. Consumer": luxuries to replace the "domestic mystique," and seek
to forge a government-corporate consensus on the
Builders, bankers, and manufacturers agreed relevance of communitarian values to American
that the type of home they wished to promote society. Of these two goals; the former was dis-
was the single-family suburban house on its own cussed in the first part of this article. What of the
lot. ... To dislodge many women from paid jobs latter?
in the 1920's and 1930's, conservative advocates
of home ownership and family wages attacked Balancing Individualism and Communitarianism
all feminists indiscriminately. . . . Government-
sponsored mortgages and tax deductions for Much is being said about values today by the media,
home owners in the post World War II era ... by government, by religious groups, by social organi-
provided a boon to speculative builders, appli- zations and others. Conservative rhetoric challenges
ance manufacturers, and automobile manufac- the teaching of "moral relativism" as a cause of social
turers. As women were ejected from wartime decay, while liberal litanies of cultural demise decry
jobs, they moved into suburban married life and the individual's focus upon what Gregory Bateson
the birth rate rose along with mass consumption. termed the "skin encapsulated ego." Note that there is
By the 1960's, the suburban rings of cities held a a level of agreement in the views espoused by these
greater percentage of the national urban popula- two cultural poles. Focusing upon this common
6 ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected]
concern about the excess of individualism in our CoHousing, summer, 1996.
society can provide a foundation for a consensus,
upon which a program of advocacy for communitar- Social Capital as a Market Commodity
ian values may be built.
The conversion of social capital into a market com-
To successfully advance intentional community it is modity may be inevitable since:
important to not permit the debate to be defined as • If the accumulation of social capital builds commu-
the individual versus society, or vice versa, but rather nity, and
to advance the anthropologist Paul Radin's preference • If community is seen as a beneficial and desirable
that".. .the individual and the group .. . resist submer- amenity in society, and
gence of one by the other" (Arthur Morgan, Guide- • If the way that the capitalist economy most effi-
book for Intentional Communities, Community ciently provides amenities is through the market
Service, Inc., 1988). A dynamic balance between system,
individual and society is the goal, encouraged in the • Then converting social capital into a market
local community by its provision of a human scale, commodity would result in "community" becoming an
knowable society in which individuals have reflected industry.
to them, and recognize, the importance of their
personal roles. The community is comprised of a We have the opportunity today to watch and partici-
range of different types of families, always changing pate in the beginning of a new industry. Before we
with the lifecycles of birth, growth, new births and take a tour of the new industry of community, how-
deaths. ever, it will be helpful to review some of its historical
antecedents, and what could be said to be at least
Through all this the local community seeks to maintain part of the contemporary conceptual foundation of
itself as an ongoing entity, providing a fixed context that new industry.
against which to measure the changes in our personal
microcosms, and of the ever quickening and often Historical Efforts in Developing Community
unsettling changes in the vast, global culture beyond as Industry
the community. Through first identifying just what
communitarian values are, then how they relate to the There have been many efforts in the past to develop
issues of the day, a basic strategy can be developed community as industry, and we can see some of these
for creating a community-building industry. And we in the "material feminist" proposals, projects and even
may not be as far from this ideal as it may seem. patents presented in writings by Dolores
Consider that in 1988 the Community Associations Hayden (see: Redesigning the American Dream:
Institute (1630 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314,703- Gender, Housing, and Family Life, and The Grand
548-8600) estimated that approximately 12.1 % of our Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist
population lived under the jurisdiction of community Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods,
associations. These use the same legal designs, the and Cities), Hayden's work includes mentions of
PUD and the condominium, that are used by most Ebenezer Howard's "Garden Cities," Frederick Law
intentional communities using what is called the Olmsted's "Garden Suburbs," and Franklin D.
"cohousing" model. Roosevelt's "Green Belt" housing and community
development program, part of the 1930s New Deal
If we would like for communitarianism to be seen in initiatives. See the following.
the future as the defining cultural ethic of 21st • Hayden: http://www.architecture.yale.edu/faculty/
Century Western civilization, we would do well to professors/hayden/hayden.htm
consider the dynamics of cultural change, and con- • Howard and Olmsted: http://www.asu.edu/caed/
sider what strategic steps might be taken to raise proceedings98/Garvin/garvin.html
communitarianism from a marginal role in our cultural • Roosevelt: http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/
milieu to a central influence in American life. index.cfm?townname=Greenbelt&page=home
The sections above are adapted from the article, We can certainly find both earlier and current ex-
"CoHousing as an American Luxury: The Marketing amples of investor-backed communities, such as the
of Communitarian Values," printed in the journal "Phalanstery" designs created by 19th Century
ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected] 7
Associationists including Brook Farm in opportunistically that they will not share in the ben-
Massachusettes (see: http://www.age-of-the- efits of current and future transactions."
sage.org/transcendentalism/brook_farm.html), and as (See: www.cpn.org/tools/dictionary/capital.html)
advocated by Horace Greeley, editor of the New
York Tribune, for whom Greeley, Colorado was Since the printing of Robert D. Putnam's "Bowling
named. In these community designs non-resident Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American
investors contributed the capital while others built the Community" (see: Journal of Democracy 6:1
developments as community residents. This strategy [January 1995], 65-78) the question of how to struc-
continues today in simple "equity-sharing" arrange- ture our social opportunities and cultural processes to
ments, such as is being used for financing small-scale increase "social capital" has been an ongoing debate
collective households like the Walnut Street Coopera- in many fields, particularly those of social welfare.
tive in Eugene, Oregon (see: http://icetree.com/ Articles can be found via an Internet search relating
walnut/revloan.html in the "Financial Structures for social capital to community development, the housing
Community" section of this paper.). In these ex- industry and economic growth by the National Civic
amples investors are paid interest on their loans made League, the Fannie Mae Foundation, the World Bank
specifically for the goal of creating not just the and many other organizations.
economic value of housing or businesses, yet the
larger sociological value of community. In the paper, "From Clients to Citizens: Asset-Based
Community Development as a Strategy For Commu-
The Contemporary Conceptual Foundation nity-Driven Development" (2002) Alison Mathie and
of Community as Industry Gord Cunningham present "Asset-based community
development (ABCD) ... as an alternative to needs-
The theoretical foundation of the contemporary based approaches to development. Following an
community industry may generally be explained by overview of the principles and practice of ABCD, the
the sociological concept of "social capital" and the paper examines five major elements of ABCD in the
socio-economic concept of "asset-based community light of current literature on relevant research and
development." There are many other theories and practice:
philosophies relevant to the question of developing • the theory and practice of appreciative inquiry;
community as industry, yet these two provide a • the concept of social capital as an asset for com-
good start. munity development;
• the theory of community economic development,
Carmen Sirianni and Lewis Friedland explain for the such as the sustainable livelihoods approach;
Civic Practices Network that, "Social capital refers to • lessons learned from two decades of international
those stocks of social trust, norms and networks development in the participatory paradigm;
that people can draw upon to solve common prob- • the theory and practice of building active citizenship
lems. ... the denser these networks, the more likely engagement and a stronger civil society."
that members of a community will cooperate for (See: http://www.livelihoods.org/static/
mutual benefit. This is so, even in the face of amathie_NN158.html)
persistent problems of collective action (tragedy of
the commons, prisoner's dilemma etc.), because Mathie and Cunningham provide an excellent ex-
networks of civic engagement: ample of the application of the ABCD strategy. In the
• foster sturdy norms of generalized reciprocity by U.S., one of the most notable examples of an ABCD
creating expectations that favors given now will be approach to community economic development is the
returned later; Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) in
• facilitate coordination and communication, and thus Roxbury, Massachusetts (see: www.dsni.org).
create channels through which information about the "Group capacity building has been at the center of this
trustworthiness of other individuals and groups can strategy: a community land trust that has provided
flow, and be tested and verified; hundreds of affordable housing units; a local mer-
• embody past success at collaboration, which can chants' organization that encourages a diverse
serve as a cultural template for future collaboration economic landscape dominated by locally, indepen-
on other kinds of problems; dently and cooperatively owned businesses; a group
• increase the potential risks to those who act of 50 young people trained in urban agriculture; and
8 ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected]
the Resident Development Institute, which hosts tion or even getting in a car or on public transportation
community economic literacy workshops." (See: to meet with others. Where we live, and with whom
www.dsni.org) we are living as a "neighborhood" becomes the
greatest opportunity we have for building social
Some of the range of local community-based eco- capital.
nomic development methods available are described
in James DeFilippis' article "The Myth of Social It seems to be an assumption that is rarely explained
Capital in Community Development," including in most articles about social capital that an important
community land trusts, mutual housing associations, aspect is regular face-to-face contacts among people.
micro-enterprise lending, and community development Proximity is one of the most important elements in
credit unions. These plus other strategies are advo- creating community, and therefore must be empha-
cated by a range of different organizations including sized as a requirement for converting social capital to
the E. F. Schumacher Society, Community Service, a market commodity. Two good examples of such
Inc., and the Solari investment advisory company. methods of using the "human scale" level of commu-
(See the following. nity for converting social capital into a market com-
• DeFilippis: http://www.fanniemaefoundation.org/ modity include the industries of business investment
programs/hpd/pdf/hpd_1204_defilippis.pdf and of housing.
• Schumacher Society: http://
www.schumachersociety.org Business Investment and Social Capital
• Community Service: http://
www.smallcommunity.org There are various types of micro-credit or revolving
• Solari investment advisory company: http:// local business loan funds growing around the world.
www.solari.com/learn/) One example is the Self-Help Association for a
Regional Economy (SHARE) described as, "a model
Proximity enables the environment necessary for community-based nonprofit that offers a simple way
Francis Moore Lappe's three criteria for the sponta- for citizens to create a sustainable local economy by
neous generation of social capital through community supporting businesses that provide products or
life: hope for or the services needed in the region." Such revolving loan
• belief in the possibility of solutions, funds focusing upon local business development
• real opportunities for citizen engagement, and provide opportunities for investment as forms of
• new public life skills among our citizens. socially responsible investing (SRI). A new study
(See: http://www.smallplanetinstitute.org/about_us/ from the Social Investment Forum "shows that the
frances_lappe/frances_articles/building.php phenomenon known as 'community investing' is now
"Building Social Capital Without Looking Backward," the fastest-growing category of socially responsible
by Frances Moore Lappé & Paul Martin Du Bois, investing in the United States." (see: http://
National Civic Review, February 14, 1997) www.greenmoneyjournal.com/article.mpl?
newsletterid=3&articleid=40)
Business Opportunities Capitalizing upon
Building Social Capital The SRI industry has been developing a number of
measures of economic development beyond the
One of our most basic needs, which is also typically strictly financial, to include environmental and social
our largest expense as well as our most valuable indices using various methods of defining and measur-
asset is housing. When people speak of "community" ing positive effect, also called "alternative develop-
today we generally think of our contacts with friends ment indicators." (See the following:
and acquaintances in the associations we join, or at • SHARE: http://www.schumachersociety.org/
work or school, and don't consider the neighborhood frameset_share.html
in which we live to be our primary community • United Nations: http://www.uncdf.org/english/
identity. Yet proximity or living next door or within microfinance/yom.php
easy neighborhood walking distance remains far more • Microcredit Summit Campaign: http://
of an inducement for, or provides greater opportunity www.microcreditsummit.org
for, face-to-face or in-person community connections • Triple Bottom Line & Sustainability Reporting
than any kind of technological method of communica- Guidelines: http://www.kld.com/article.cgi?id=1664
ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected] 9
• Gross International Happiness Project (GIH): mutual housing associations which use tax-exempt
www.grossinternationalhappiness.org/ideology.html organizations in providing housing, often with funding
• Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Econo- from the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
mies: www.ceres.org (see the NRC link below), housing cooperatives
• Good Money: www.goodmoney.com/sefunds5.htm which use the consumer cooperative economic model
• Green Money: www.greenmoneyjournal.com/ for providing housing, and the community land trust
index.mpl which may use either a state nonprofit corporation or
• Socially Responsible Investing: a tax-exempt organization for holding land and
www.socialfunds.com sometimes also the housing itself, in a community
• Co-op America: http://www.communityinvest.org controlled organization for "de-commodifying" land
Social Investment Forum: www.socialinvest.org and housing, thereby maintaining permanent
• Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators: affordability. None of these, however, represent the
www.calvert-henderson.com/index.htm and actual engagement of the full thrust of market
www.hazelhenderson.com and the TV series at economics in providing community as a for-profit
www.ethicalmarketplace.com) commodity. (See the following.
• Housing Cooperatives: www.coophousing.org/
Community as Industry about_nahc.shtml
• Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation:
When studying community investment and methods of www.nw.org/network/home.asp
measuring development it is easy to lose sight of the • Planning Commissioners Journal:
level of face-to-face community. Where the human www.plannersweb.com/articles/pet112.html
scale can remain the primary focus, however, is in the Institute for Community Economics: www.iceclt.org/
realm of housing. While human community is clt/
dependent upon some form of economic activity, it is • School of Living Community Land Trust: www.s-o-
the residential community that forms the basis of l.org/landtrust.htm
support for individuals, whether we consider their • Ozark Regional Community Land Trust:
economic roles as workers, consumers or owners of www.orlt.org/
investment capital, or their roles as family members • E. F. Schumacher Society: schumachersociety.org/
and neighbors. frameset_land.html)
Although "community" may be considered a luxury by As outlined in the opening of this paper, if community
some when it is a struggle simply to acquire housing is seen as a beneficial and desirable amenity in
in the modern industrial economy or post-industrial society then it is only a matter of time before the
information economy, the case can also be made that economic system will recognize the potential for
"community" is actually a necessity when we consider "commodifying" the concept of community. Of course
the problems of stress, depression, violence and other this has generally been done by developers who
social dislocations resulting from the atomization and speak of retirement or other exclusive and sometimes
alienation of individuals. One authority on the issue, gated neighborhoods in the context of the "community
the National Association of Social Workers, states development" they create and market. However it
that, "The stubborn persistence of violence in the wasn't until the advent of the cohousing movement
United States and throughout the world is related to a that "community" became defined in the contempo-
loss of community." (See: http://www.naswpress.org/ rary housing industry as more than merely residential
publications/books/intl/global_crisis_violence/ proximity, yet rather by what Francis Moore Lappe
2766foreword.html) describes as the "spontaneous generation of social
capital."
There are a range of different methods for building
community, beyond the after-thoughts of neighbor- As introduced on the website of the Cohousing
hood block parties and neighborhood watch and other Association of the United States, "Cohousing commu-
programs seeking to overlay forms of mutual aware- nities balance the traditional advantages of home
ness and aid upon existing housing developments. ownership with the benefits of shared common
Examples of organizations in which a form of com- facilities and ongoing connections with your neigh-
munity is integral to the housing strategy include bors. These cooperative neighborhoods, both
10 ÉLAN—Fourth World Services, PO Box 1666, Denver, CO 80201-1666—A. Allen Butcher—[email protected]