Just where is "here"? Bioregions are the way the world divides up naturally -- defined by climate, by watershed, by mountains, by travel routes. But it's not the way we're used to looking at the world, and identifying the place we live.
Activists like Peter Berg of the Planet Drum Foundation, and cartographer Doug Abberley are trying to reconnect us with our natural neighborhood. Community members are being encouraged to create their own maps that record the stored information of people who know the place. The process of creating such maps has become a wonderful way of building community, and can provide a powerful blueprint for social change.
Other titles in the series are:
Community Animals - Leading thinkers explore community, work, time, values, and change.
Virtually Intentional - Finding community in the cloister, a commune, and in cyberspace.
Community by Design - Good design of houses and neighborhoods builds community.
Making Shelter - My Home with Others - Co-ops and co-housing provide new models for building community.
Reclaiming Community - Communities in Toronto and Oakland take back and revitalize public spaces.
Ageing with Community - The search for community and independence as we grow old.
The Boundaries of Change - Cities cope with changing demographics.
Finding Us and Them - Physically and mentally challenged people find community.
On the Road - RV owners leave their home towns and build their own communities.
Grade Level: 7-12, College, Adult
US Release Date: 1997
Copyright Date: 1997
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-509-1
VHS ISBN: 1-56029-700-X
Reviews
"The perfect starting point for anyone curious about...bioregional mapping...The viewer is brought right into the heart of the mapping experience...Well-conceived and edited, this video reveals how mapping can unearth and sculpt a regional identity of a place that would otherwise remain largely unshared and unknown." Orion Afield
"You can't keep community down. Give people a little encouragement and a few tools, and they'll recreate the sense of community spirit in any available cracks and crannies in our otherwise alienated culture...These stories...are upbeat, encouraging - and replicable." Communities
"What (the producers) found was a growing belief and faith in the community as the cure for social ills like poverty, crime and estrangement from other people...It is precisely because WAYS WE LIVE is politically astute, without being partisan, that it is so compelling." Alex Strachan, Vancouver Sun
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