Educational Media Reviews Online

Each of the ten videocassettes in the series Ways We Live: Exploring Community is shot on location throughout the Western US and Canada. Filmed by five different directors and crews, each video seeks to pose and explore a particular series of questions about community which are answered through interviews with members of various communities. Each of the ten programs focuses on a different community or set of communities, exposing the viewer to a wealth of personal narratives and viewpoints.

• Program 1 - Community Animals
  Introduces the fundamental questions of community - what has happened to our sense of community? Why do people feel so isolated, alienated, and alone? What can we do to regain or reconceptualize notions of community that work in today's society? Historian Stephanie Coontz outlines some of the post-WWII political, social, and economic conditions that changed our sense of family and community, and several members of the organization New Road Map Foundation (NRMF) outline their philosophies for creating new and viable communities for the future.

• Program 2 - Virtually Intentional
  Explores whether community is a physical place or a shared state of mind. Communities highlighted are a cloister of nuns in British Columbia, a commune in British Columbia, a radio program and a Virtual community (The Well) on the Internet.

• Program 3 - Community by Design
  Explores the ways in which we are influenced by the spaces we inhabit and their design. This program questions whose values are reflected in architectural design and the layout of neighborhoods as well as how those designs might reflect a sense of community. Community members, architects, and planners are interviewed.

• Program 4 - My Home with Others
  Explores the attitudes of lower- and middle-class individuals toward housing, shelter, and community.

• Program 5 - Reclaiming Community
  Focuses on urban community renewal programs in Toronto and California and how individuals are given a renewed sense of purpose and community through participation in local politics and activities.

• Program 6 - Ageing with Community Focuses on retirement communities and the changes in what individuals want and expect from their communities as they age - among the themes explored are independence, safety, friendship, leisure, and a chance to enjoy the fruits of one's labors.

• Program 7 - The Boundaries of Change Poses the question of how communities cope with change. Residents from Richmond, British Columbia discuss demographic, neighborhood, and economic changes taking place in their community as a result of waves of immigration from Hong Kong and Korea. Community members, old and new, discuss ways of coping with change while allowing others to retain their distinctive cultural traditions.

• Program 8 - Finding Us and Them Explores how communities deal with the "other" - in this case, the mentally ill, the physically disabled, and the homeless, and highlights the efforts of various communities to integrate the "other" into daily community activities.

• Program 9 - On the Road Provides insight into the lives of individuals who live in mobile communities - in the form of Recreational Vehicles, and poses the question, "must community be rooted in place?"

• Program 10 - Maps with Teeth Explores and encourages the creation of bioregional maps, which contain information of significance to community members, not just cartographic features that reduce communities to a name and a shape. Bioregional maps empower local community members who live in and are connected to the land and promote grassroots efforts for a sustainable future.

Ways We Live was inspired by producers Heather MacAndrew and David Springbett's personal quests to explore how we define "community," give community meaning, and the profound impact it has on shaping our lives. Billed as a documentary, Ways We Live takes a very personal approach to the topic of community and seems to reflect the worldview, philosophy, and agenda of the New Road Map Foundation, an organization whose members feature prominently in program 1. The NRMF, headquartered in Seattle, Washington is a group that promotes better living through personal responsibility, cooperation, caring, conservation, and the promotion of environmental sustainability. The NRMF's interests are highlighted through the types of communities covered and the issues focused upon in each program. Not coincidentally, these same interests and values are echoed in the comments of interviewees expressing how they have coped with loneliness and isolation through community involvement and through grassroots community activity. If the producers of the video intended to promote a particular perspective on community, that's fine; it just might have been more honest to state this intention directly.

On the plus side, the number and variety of communities presented in the series will give viewers a feel for the range of variation in contemporary communities in parts of the US and Canada, and the comments of the individual interviewees are fascinating - after all, this is the raw material of ethnographic inquiry. Unfortunately, however, the agenda of this series is to put forth a particular philosophy of community, and as such it is very subjective rather than objective in its treatment of the topic (for example, there is no exploration of the workplace as community, even though we spend an increasing amount of time at our jobs).

While Ways We Live is full of interesting characters and communities, there is little to no social analysis presented, and the series fails to provide an interpretive framework from which viewers can work critically. This lack of an interpretive framework is a serious flaw, particularly if the videos are meant to be used in a classroom setting. Given the length of the series and the amount of footage provided, it would be difficult for most high school and lower division undergraduates to assimilate and interpret the information presented. Likewise, because of the large number of programs, it would be difficult for instructors to incorporate the whole series into their teaching. The literature accompanying the review copy of this program indicates that a workbook or text is available. These materials may provide essential bridging mechanisms to add structure to the series, however these were not available for review.

The series would have benefited from a stronger overview in program 1, the use of a narrator to unite the various programs of the series together (and provide smooth transitions between topics), and some sort of summary or concluding statement at the end of the series.

Given that the series seems structured around the beliefs and values of a particular organization and does not represent a scholarly treatment of sociological or anthropological approaches to the study of community, educators in search of a video to supplement a text or a teaching unit on community are advised to pass on this series.

Appropriate for college or university level libraries with sociology collections. Not recommended.