How have our areas of focus over the course of this semester intersected? What broader understandings have you gained as a result of field visits, readings, and discussions? Please provide at least two different examples of the interconnections among topics and points of discussion. Remember to cite references, though you do not have to exclusively cite readings assigned for this week.
Our focus has been based around community, how it is formed, and how to be engaged in it. We have not necessarily engaged in the community though. We have taken field visits to learn about various organizations throughout Cincinnati, but we have not engaged them in terms of volunteering or making a difference. We learned how to engage instead of actually becoming engaged. I feel that, up to this point, the class has been more about learning about the less prosperous areas where major change is occurring throughout Cincinnati. This learning is a result of our readings, discussions, and field experiences.
Before every class we have had to complete readings and try to answer questions about these readings to discuss in class. The purpose of the readings have been to stimulate our interest in learning about the communities that exist around our new home in Cincinnati. I think the most influential pieces of information I have learned from our readings are the idea of privilege and the difference between gentrification and urban renewal. The readings gave me a basic understanding of major topics of community, and the class discussions refined them. In class I gained an in depth understanding of Johnson's definition of privilege, which is that "privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they have done or failed to do" (Johnson, 22, 2006). Basically this is saying that privilege is used in society to demean and create a sense of superiority over others. However, I understand that a lot of my success is a result of luck. I was lucky to be born into an upper middle class family who supported me every day. I realize that being so privileged makes me obligated to give back to society. As well as privilege, we discussed the difference between gentrification and urban renewal, which was explained quite vaguely in one of our readings. According to Palen, urban renewal is "rebuild[ing] cities' inner cores to encourage middle-class residency" (Palen, 2005, 237) while gentrification is the "regeneration of working-class neighborhoods... [by] newcomers [that] are young professionals of higher income and status than existing residents" (Palen, 2005, 240). Using these definitions as the core for our discussion, the class decided as a whole that urbanization is rebuilding and refining a community for the betterment of the people who live there, gentrification involves upper and middle class individuals using wealth to renovate and push out the people living there. In regards to OTR, we decided that there was no way to determine whether gentrification or urban renewal was occurring without actually spending more time exploring and engaging in the community.
The engagement part of the class was a result of our field experiences. In order to give back to society, we first had to learn about it and the opportunities available to do so through first hand experiences. The major field experiences were in OTR and Northside. The tour of Elementz, a haven where kids and young adults can safely practice music and dance, in OTR really opened my eyes to the hardships of the youth living in violent and sketchy neighborhoods. The work of Elementz intertwined with the work of WordPlay, which is located in Northside and works to tutor kids who attend large public schools where they are often overlooked. This relation comes together and forms the idea that one form of community engagement is helping less privileged youth. Our own experiences in exploring Northside and OTR led us to discover for ourselves the truth about these places. Before exploring OTR I was closed minded and thought it would be a bad experience. Jessica allowed me to discover the truth behind OTR on my own, and as a result I came to the realization that it is not as bad as people make it out to be. I formed this same opinion during my field experience visiting Northside. Similar to what I had previously heard about OTR, I had an image of Northside as an area filled with violence, drugs, and run-down buildings. My personal experience seeing the beauty of the various murals and witnessing the sense of community and diversity present at the farmer's market made me realize that Northside has more to offer than crime.
While we have discussed and experienced the communities throughout Cincinnati and how they are defined, the final part of Exploring Community Engagement is actually engaging in the community using the information we have learned. This takes the form of our Outreach Project.
Johnson, A.G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Palen, J.J. (2005). The urban world (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Our focus has been based around community, how it is formed, and how to be engaged in it. We have not necessarily engaged in the community though. We have taken field visits to learn about various organizations throughout Cincinnati, but we have not engaged them in terms of volunteering or making a difference. We learned how to engage instead of actually becoming engaged. I feel that, up to this point, the class has been more about learning about the less prosperous areas where major change is occurring throughout Cincinnati. This learning is a result of our readings, discussions, and field experiences.
Before every class we have had to complete readings and try to answer questions about these readings to discuss in class. The purpose of the readings have been to stimulate our interest in learning about the communities that exist around our new home in Cincinnati. I think the most influential pieces of information I have learned from our readings are the idea of privilege and the difference between gentrification and urban renewal. The readings gave me a basic understanding of major topics of community, and the class discussions refined them. In class I gained an in depth understanding of Johnson's definition of privilege, which is that "privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they have done or failed to do" (Johnson, 22, 2006). Basically this is saying that privilege is used in society to demean and create a sense of superiority over others. However, I understand that a lot of my success is a result of luck. I was lucky to be born into an upper middle class family who supported me every day. I realize that being so privileged makes me obligated to give back to society. As well as privilege, we discussed the difference between gentrification and urban renewal, which was explained quite vaguely in one of our readings. According to Palen, urban renewal is "rebuild[ing] cities' inner cores to encourage middle-class residency" (Palen, 2005, 237) while gentrification is the "regeneration of working-class neighborhoods... [by] newcomers [that] are young professionals of higher income and status than existing residents" (Palen, 2005, 240). Using these definitions as the core for our discussion, the class decided as a whole that urbanization is rebuilding and refining a community for the betterment of the people who live there, gentrification involves upper and middle class individuals using wealth to renovate and push out the people living there. In regards to OTR, we decided that there was no way to determine whether gentrification or urban renewal was occurring without actually spending more time exploring and engaging in the community.
The engagement part of the class was a result of our field experiences. In order to give back to society, we first had to learn about it and the opportunities available to do so through first hand experiences. The major field experiences were in OTR and Northside. The tour of Elementz, a haven where kids and young adults can safely practice music and dance, in OTR really opened my eyes to the hardships of the youth living in violent and sketchy neighborhoods. The work of Elementz intertwined with the work of WordPlay, which is located in Northside and works to tutor kids who attend large public schools where they are often overlooked. This relation comes together and forms the idea that one form of community engagement is helping less privileged youth. Our own experiences in exploring Northside and OTR led us to discover for ourselves the truth about these places. Before exploring OTR I was closed minded and thought it would be a bad experience. Jessica allowed me to discover the truth behind OTR on my own, and as a result I came to the realization that it is not as bad as people make it out to be. I formed this same opinion during my field experience visiting Northside. Similar to what I had previously heard about OTR, I had an image of Northside as an area filled with violence, drugs, and run-down buildings. My personal experience seeing the beauty of the various murals and witnessing the sense of community and diversity present at the farmer's market made me realize that Northside has more to offer than crime.
While we have discussed and experienced the communities throughout Cincinnati and how they are defined, the final part of Exploring Community Engagement is actually engaging in the community using the information we have learned. This takes the form of our Outreach Project.
Johnson, A.G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Palen, J.J. (2005). The urban world (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.