Everywhere I turn these days it’s all about community. Some of the talk is sincere, it seems, and some of it, frankly, is schmaltz. Last night I heard a very happy-clappy red white and blue commercial for the US Coast Guard on the radio that must have used the word community 15 times in 60 seconds. We are the shield blah blah blah in your community blah blah blah…
Later, while reading STEP Inside Design I came across an article, ‘Branding for Communities,’ about the Blanton Mueseum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin. The museum recently relocated amid a push to make art more relevant to the Live Music Capital of the World. They hired Milkshake Media to get the word out. Milkshake’s promise- We Build Brands that Build Community- kind of says it all. I’m sure they do. But this might be news to Austinites that don’t do art museums. But that’s for them to decide. I report, you decide…
This begs a question. Does the community exist prior to the branding campaign or does the branding campaign create the community? If it’s that latter then this is quite a lot of pressure.
Get Real
Of course Community with a capital ‘C’ is an organic human thing that just is. It’s the blurring that makes it tough to distinguish communities from brands. Consider the seminar The Art of Branding a Community in South Dakota, where the (often violent) history of Indian-settler relations is reduced to clever signage and shiboleth that lure tourists into the brand experience! Yee Hah!
Or, as Jonathan Ford of pearlfisher asks, What’s Your Tribe? The branding and marketing industries now have to cater to consumers’ disavowel of mass marketing by diving into the micro-communities in which they spend their hours. Brands and brand communities become the vehicles through which tribes rebel against brands and branding. Every move we make is implicated as part of this or that brand-community initiative…Oh well.
Coworking as Community
In light of the often tainted and campy intent that underscores community in many of its uses today, a couple of observations here are not premature. First, the world needs community. Clearly, people are reaching out for it in all directions. When branches of the military are justifying their whole trip through appeals to community, then you know something is happening. I reckon this speaks to how deeply many forms of community have been eroded by the corporatization of so many aspects of global life, but that’s for a different rant.
Secondly, there is hope. The coworking community, as it emerges as a global phenomenon, is, I think, a new form of organic community. The simple yet elegant act of people sharing resources, ideas, time and work in shared spaces is all about the presence and co-presence, and not about monetizing communities in the ways I’ve been discussing here. Like all organic forms of community, coworking simply is. It is people. Working. Sharing. Living. Meet Ups. BarCamp. Tech Drinks…Everyday stuff that connects people.
Somewhere along the line some clever firm- milkshake, pearlfisher- will leverage the brand on behalf of somebody. That’s the way it goes.
Right now, though, in the hailstorm of community this/community that, it is really nice to see that the real thing still exists and is evolving.
The Butcher
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