Environmental Engineering Reference
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participation. Recently, Putnam (2007) has cited the US 'megachurch' phenomenon
as an interesting exemplar of community-based social interactivity. Megachurches
have very low barriers to entry and people can leave just as easily. Nonetheless, they
generate intense commitment, often through the organization of a range of small
social leisure groups - mountain bikers for God, volleyball players for God, cancer
survivors for God, and so on.
Despite appearances to the contrary, members' emotional commitments are directed
to other people rather than to theology. Friends and helpers are sought and gained.
So, Putnam asks, can what occurs within these organizations be replicated elsewhere?
An important distinction is sometimes made between
bonding
and
bridging
social
capital (Putnam, 2000; Woolcock and Narayan, 2000). Bonding social capital tends
to be characterized by dense, multifunctional ties and strong, generally localized,
trust, whereas bridging social capital is characterized by weak ties. Woolcock and
Narayan argue that bonding social capital is an effective defence against poverty
but less valuable for economic and social development - the difference between
'getting by' and 'getting on'. However, Portes (1998) also notes that strong ties and
social norms may enforce a conformity that militates against working with others,
leading to social exclusivity or the reproduction of such traits as ethnic prejudice,
political marginalization, suspicion and xenophobia. The increasing numbers of gated
communities in the US, Europe, South Africa and China is arguably one manifestation
of this (Romig, 2005), since gated communities are protected, and protective spaces
with delineated and defensible boundaries and rules that geographically define the
existence of a 'community'. As Low (2003) notes, residents in gated communities
are interested in a particular type of community - one that protects children, that
keeps out crime, that looks neat and tidy, and that enjoys quality services and good
amenities. For some residents, the architecture and spatial design express an ideal,
a practical utopia, separating the public from private, the suburb from the city,
thereby precluding a potentially rich experience of 'community' in the interests of
an imagined peace of mind stemming from uniformity and familiarity. In Managua,
Nicaragua, a complete layer of the city has become disembedded from the general
urban fabric by a series of high-speed roads, roundabouts and the privatization of
security, which, through a planned process of social and spatial segregation, has
produced a fortified network of gated communities for the city's elites (Rodgers,
2004).
More progressive social initiatives do exist, but many have only short instrumentalist
lifespans, with problems compounded by differential levels, capacities and
predispositions to participate. The educated and materially comfortable classes tend
to gain disproportionate attention, time and resources to secure their needs and
wants. They have political clout, economic significance, and the skills and contacts
to be effective. Unfortunately, there is sometimes a failure to connect, a resistance
to the emergence of what political philosopher John Rawls (1999) terms 'a moral
personality', where self-interest overrides the common or public good, where seeking
the rightful redress of a grievance achieves only partial success. For example, seeking
redress for the problems of traffic congestion may not necessarily facilitate the
consideration of wider issues - the development of an integrated public transport
system, for example. Local environmental campaigns are often characterized as
NIMBYism (not in my backyard). Concluding his historical survey of urban poverty
initiatives in the US, Robert Halpern (1995: 229) writes somewhat despairingly of:
