Answer the question

Okay, so yesterday I posed a question but provided no answer. I hate when other people do that, so let me try to elaborate on what I think of as community.

When I was growing up in small town Texas, I spoke about living in a small community. To me, that was not just a geographic place. It was an idea. It was a group of people who knew me and cared about me.

Now I live in a big city, but my idea of community hasn't really changed that much. It's still more about groups of people who are associated with different parts of my life--there's the Wesleyan community, the student publications community, the public relations community, the gay and lesbian community, and yes, even a community of people associated with where I live. However, this idea is not about the geography of these places. It's about the people.

People make community. So no matter what geographic "community" I live in, I dwell in several communities. This is my idea of community. How to create it, how to expand it, how to communicate within it--these are some of the issues that I hope to explore further.

What is community?

Many years ago, when I was a budding young journalist, I had a newspaper column called "Kay's Copy." I guess this is a modern-day version of that, except that now, I'm a budding, but not so young, assistant professor, and I'm interested in studying the idea of community. I hope that this blog provides other people a place to talk about community, question the idea of community, define community and hopefully create community. So while this is officially my "community," I certainly hope that you'll join.

--Dr. Kay L. Colley