Today’s Daily Create asks us to reflect on what make a community. That’s quite a big question for an an activity that typically takes 15-20 minutes to complete. I didn’t check before replying to it today, but last time this challenge was set I put together a quick video and shared it to the playlist.
This time I looked up at my notice board and took a picture of an image that’s been there since I was writing my PhD and learning about affinity spaces.
Homago flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license
The concept of HOMAGO – Hanging Around, Messing About, Geeking Out – comes from the work of Mimi Ito, and was fundamental to my understanding of connected learning and affinity spaces. It describes the practices that I enjoy when I complete the daily create and see what others have created. When I was thinking about all of this and trying to understand what makes a successful community, network or affinity group I remembered the work of Emile Durkheim that I has learnt way back as an undergraduate, and his theory of society as being composed of Community, Cultus and Creed (who we are, what we do and what we believe).
I still think that’s right.
