What is "community" and why do we yearn for it? If we have lost our sense of community, how do we get it back? What is the spiritual need that draws us all to community? These are the questions that WAYS WE LIVE sets out to answer.

The concept of community is central to our well-being as individuals and as a society. Yet fragmented families, constant moving and job changes have led to a pervasive feeling of isolation and a sense that we've somehow lost community to the past. WAYS WE LIVE explores new models of community that provide the spiritual sustenance we crave.

Producers Heather MacAndrew and David Springbett take us on location around the United States and Canada to uncover a treasure trove of changing communities and meet local heroes who create them - ordinary people who find ways to reclaim their neighborhoods, and a new breed of thinkers who champion a return to grassroots participation in community. The series tackles a lot of life's tough questions about what, in the end, gives meaning to our lives.

The 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.

Maps with Teeth - Bioregional mapping by locals communicates a sense of place and regional identity.



Grade Level: 7-12, College, Adult
US Release Date: 1997     Copyright Date: 1997
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-499-0     VHS ISBN: 1-56029-690-9

Reviews "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 "This is not an indulgent journey into nostalgia, but an exploration of the people we have become, touching on our diversity as well as our similarities." Orion Afield "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