After a set of new visits of coworking spaces and fab labs this week, I am more than ever skeptical or at least, lost, about the use of the notion of ‘community’.
You will join a community, share a space, collective events. I’ve even heard the word ‘family’!
Let’s make a short detour. An historical detour again towards the history of western universities. It is often reminded that the word university comes from the latin word ‘universitas, universitatit, f’, which means (among others) ‘community’. Unversities have emerged for the Middle Age period. They are a typical collectivity of the Middle Age. The archetypal community of that time are monasteries (see previous post). With a strong set of rules, a major time and space unity. Monks of that time (and most monks today) are fully involved in collective life, day and night. Everybody is expected to respect the same rules, the … Read more