Communications Research in Action: Scholar-Activist Collaborations for a Democratic Public Sphere

10. Community Connect: A Network of Civic Spaces for Public Communication in North Dakota

CHAPTER 10 Community Connect A Network of Civic Spaces for Public Communication in North Dakota lana f. rakow and diana iulia nastasia Can we build it? Will they join? These were the questions we faced as we started on a grassroots project to create a network of civic spaces for public communication in North Dakota that people will use. We thought these questions were important because we were aware of the paucity of such projects, of venues that were created but not used, and of initiatives with only short-term success. Our work began in 2006 with a handful of community residents and of members of the University of North Dakota who were concerned about the shortage and the shortcomings of means for participating and for sharing information in the state. Meanwhile, it has become a regional effort of dozens of individuals, organizations, and communities, involved in creating and using multiple, interconnected, and viable avenues for collaborations and conversations. This chapter reflects on how the project, currently named Community Connect, has developed. First, we lay out the theories and methodologies that shaped our approach and our initiative, followed by the context of geography, media, and engagement within which we proceeded to work. Next we describe the first two stages of the project: design, involving planning and research; and implementation, involving the launch of in-person, in-print, and online formats and the establishment of an organizational structure. Then we present the evaluation stage, by returning to our questions —if we can build it, will they join?—and assessing implications for public communication of partnerships, policy, and praxis. We conclude by addressing the next stage of sustainability and questions of transferability. 197 198 l a na f . ra k o w a n d di a n a i u l ia n a st a s ia theories and methods Theoretical and methodological issues pertaining to Community Connect were outlined, considered, and many times reconsidered during the meetings of the project’s founding group, and later steering committee and executive teams. Minutes of these meetings also record intense exchanges of ideas between and among community and university members. In this chapter, we tie those considerations and exchanges about community (leading to a strategy of shifting from social to civic) and knowledge (leading to a commitment to moving from private to public) to the relevant theoretical literature. We also tie discussions about what research is appropriate to communities (leading to the practice of employing community-based research towards community action) to the relevant methodological literature. Finally, we summarize the methods of discovery, documentation, and re- flection used in the project. An important theoretical problem raised in the process of reflection was community: what is community, why is it important, what are its drawbacks, how can it be attained? It was often mentioned by Community Connect contributors that the concept of community, and the concrete making of any community, are ever-changing. This thought is in agreement with what Shepherd and Rothenbuhler (2001) wrote in Communication and Community: Community is found in time or place . . . It is used to control; it is freeing. It is the basis of democracy itself, or a cover for repression. Although some see community entering a new age of access, growth, and vitality, many others see it withering away (x). Della-Pianna and Anderson’s (1995) assertion that a community is a performance for those inside it and a sign for those outside it, and Friedland’s (2001) statement that communities should be ‘‘communicatively integrated ’’ are also in consonance with ideas expressed during Community Connect meetings. But most importantly, theorizing about community featured in a neighborhood communication plan prepared by a community relations class at the University of North Dakota (Rakow et. al. 2008) has become the basis of a proposed shift by Community Connect from the realm of the social to that of the civic. In this view, the social sphere incorporates places and events in and through which community residents get to meet one another (such as neighborhood coffee shops or businesses, block parties or garage sales), whereas the civic sphere comprises spaces and activities by means of which community residents get to contribute to the common good (such as a neighborhood association or link, an awareness campaign, or a conversation on a specific issue). As scholars have noted, for many different reasons the number of civic participation opportunities in...