As we set out on this journey, we’re at our best when we can effectively communicate with each other. To progress in our understanding of how to effectively lead and manage our communities-as-destinations, I would like to begin by providing some clarity as to what I mean when I think and talk about ‘community’, ‘destination’ and ‘communities-as-destinations’ (topics discussed and abstracted from my e-book Astonish! Smarter Tourism by design).
Before we begin with ‘community’, let me thank you for your dedication in helping create and build this worldwide network of Destinations-in-Action communities.
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Destinations-in-Action views “community” loosely and broadly to represent any shared place, densely populated or not, where people reside and love to visit. Such a geographic place could be as small as a hamlet, village or island, as a large region of villages, farms, cottages, or attractions, or as integrated cities comprised of many neighborhoods or boroughs, with some acting quite independently. Indeed, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), can be depicted as communities, as shown in the documentary series, chacun son îles.
Personally I like to think of communities as shared places of use, where people build lives and gather, where travelers (over the years) have decided to stay, raised families, and discovered their destinies – places for families and friends, occupations and preoccupations, sanctuaries and celebrations; places that represent points of departure for further travels, and points of arrival (destinations) for individuals from out-of-town to conduct business, go shopping, or who feel drawn, allured, or invited for varied, purposeful, mindful or mindless pursuits.
In a larger sense, community can stand for something more than territory, beyond geography or use, where people bond and exhibit desires for social cohesion, interdependence and conviviality, shared interests or purpose – a sense that conveys a psychological dimension demonstrative of an attachment, comradery (the village effect), a form of ownership or a commitment to place, neighborhood, homeland, or commons…places that reveal a sympathy for the immediate environment and culture(s) as sources for life satisfactions…in essence, shared assets, resources or heirlooms that need protection as they get used and passed from one generation to another.
Similarly, references can be made in regard to rebuilding companies as communities or forming customer communities (“groups of people who come together over what they care about” or who they are) revealing endearment to enthusiastic host/visitor co-creations of offerings, experiences and relationships within communities where caring, sharing, and supporting of people is prioritized over profits…likely a false hope if disgruntlement and a fraying of civility dominates.
In a sense, communities are often represented through a multiplicity of dimensions (passion, progressiveness, power and possibility, or lack of them) expressed through identity and how people work, live, behave, and learn, what they value and imagine…as in imagined communities.
While trying to accommodate for diverse viewpoints of multiple communities-within-communities (some invisible or metaphoric) adaptation to an evolving set of principles may be expected among people sharing similar ethnic, language, racial or tribal heritages heightening the degree of cohesion that helps strengthen a community’s identity and provides mechanisms for residents to mobilize in endeavors to overcome threats or help “others” fit-in.
Sadly, though, unity can be disrupted through power, powerlessness (the imposition of institutional dictates) and conflicting forms of place attachment, or misplaced through racial fervor in a post-truth world that serves to extinguish trust and exaggerate contradictions, whether in societies or workplaces.
From touristic points of view and expressions of innate hospitality in service to visitors, some communities (desirous of being favorable destinations) tend to seek a coherent organization of expectations and standards to ensure repeated and extended performances. In this sense, communities reveal an institutional dimension, a bridging among networks or inter-related organizations and patterned practices within which residents live out their destinies and pursue the aims and aspirations they share or reciprocate.
Ideally, then, “community” represents a form of strategic advantage that serves to enhance togetherness, (anonymity too), belonging, and social infrastructure. It’s a catalyst for action, evolution, civil realization, and social mobility, particularly when people have their own language that is invested with meaning and power (personal and political) where presence creates possibility.
Community exists when or if individuals recognize the commonality of shared (even adverse) circumstances, and reach out to interact, connect, and create webs of relationships, while attempting to reconcile adverse tensions (malice or mutual exploitation) and unconscious biases (exemplified in the award winning film, Green Book), even to unite through differences. In this regard, it could be said that communities thrive on their distinctiveness and degrees of respect. As such, deference to, and acceptance of, the “other” can represent a reconciliatory concept…if only it were that simple.
While life’s first imperative is freedom to create itself (the capacity for self-determination and democracy), its second imperative is the search for community or togetherness – a sense of belonging that sets limits, encourages diplomacy and a desire to engage or network, as illustrated, for example, through cosmopolitan canopies, visions for urban re-design, or local desires to create, develop and bootstrap companies (as in Developing Philly), equally as applicable to tourism.
Such connection-seeking behavior acknowledges the importance of our inter-dependencies and places where people meet, exchange, and cooperate for business, pleasure or personal reasons – matching hope with reality, giving rise to collaborative approaches in solving common problems, being innovative in collaborative and co-creative ways, and in the process enhancing a community’s heart and soul.
Of course, the conditions for freedom and connectedness can be at odds resulting in disunity, disengagement, or dis-functionalism (conditions that also occur when markets and central governments leave communities behind). But there is always concern as to what’s necessary to strengthen the heart of our communities…to create places where everyone is afforded the opportunity to be healthy and vibrant.
Thriving in this paradox requires clarity, suggesting that belonging, or better yet, attachment to community, may have to be facilitated through shared principles and a shared sense of purpose, tolerance, meaningful participation and inclusion, though not at the expense of shredding individual uniqueness.
It may be a struggle, but unity is said to reveal and relay our strength, our ability to unite people of diverse backgrounds with a shared set of goals and values… requirements necessitating new structures for belonging if we are to find and foster power in community – the village effect - as they struggle to get together.
In these ways, the most promising aspects of communities tend not to be founded on directives, but on individual discretion (not toxic individualism), diversity, innovation, and desires as to how best to be together, survive, cooperate, convene and commune so as to create intensely local, humanistic, and sacred places (listen to Zita Cobb & learn about Shorefast), every community a center of tension, creativity and innovation.
The promise of community, therefore, revolves around answers to questions like “who are we as a community” “who are we seeking to become”, “what matters and is important” (life, liberty and livelihoods), “how can we improve the ways in which we design and define our neighborhoods, towns and cities, for all our citizens and our customers’’.
These are all questions alluding to the power of purpose that rests on virtues, values, principles (perhaps written into a constitution), trust, and the need to find a moral compass with particular reference to dignity, well-being and integrity that need to be demonstrated and lived daily…yet nefariously disparaged by actions of the fictional Everfield’s resort, as depicted in the Mexican film, Time-Share.
Such intentionality on community (with transformation in mind) often fosters endearment to a “small is beautiful” mentality that cannot help but give rise to more unique versions, variations or interpretations of identity, that are acceptable and appropriate for all of us – citizens, hosts, and visitors alike.
This is the spirit that affirms the New Urban Agenda, particularly when supported through a predominant emphasis on place-making and a broader understanding of the multi-issue aspects of sustainability and conservation, whether articulated through the Silent Spring Revolution or to agreements such as the Global Reporting Initiative.
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In the next issue of Destinations-in-Action I will clarify the concept of ‘destination’, followed later by ‘communities-as-destinations’.