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community building

PINKER: Finding partners or group to have daily life action together

Submitted by joonsbaek on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 9:53am

Countries

China

Tags

urban, neighborhood

Themes

community building
Link: 
PINKER
Stakeholders / Promoters: 
Pinkenet is an E-platform where participants could publish and share the information for finding the partners and group. It was organized by several sections to make searching easier. Participants are mostly Yong people who leave from their families and hometown to new cities to work and live. Lack of families and friends makes them life boring and alone.
Background/ Context: 
With industrialization, the population of cities grow fast with new immigrations. Most of them are the young who leave from their families and hometown to new cities to work and live. Lack of families and friends makes them life boring and alone. Then those young start to connect with others who are in the similar situations through some channels like pinkenet to have activities together like dinner, entertainment, travel, shopping, sports, game and etc. By those activities, those young peoples increase their life quality and make more friends, have more social fabric connections.
Case Description: 

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With E-platform, urban people (mostly young) could find partners or group who they don’t know each other to have activities together. With economic prices, Pinker participants would have more social life and social connection and to have some services and experiences, which increase the life quality to individuals and solidarity to society. 

Benefits (Social, and environmental benefits): 

Those urban young find a solution for themselves to re-establish the social connections in new places with an economic and easy and sustainable way. 

PINCHE: Car pool for going to work

Submitted by joonsbaek on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 9:48am

Countries

China

Tags

carpooling

Themes

small distance mobility, do-it-yourself, community building
Link: 
Pinche
Stakeholders / Promoters: 
Owner of car who shares his/her care and provide service of transportation to others without much additional cost but with contribution from them; Participations without car have a high quality and economic solution; Pinche web: different kinds of E-platform which enable group building of car pool;
Background/ Context: 
Urban transportation is a big social problem in cities today: too slowly by auto bus, too crowded by metro, too expensive by taxi, too exhausted to own a car. There is a big potential need of new solutions more comfortable, economic, convenient, fast and accessible, which is car pool could contribute. Once more residents have their own cars, car pool is becoming popular rapidly. With different communication channel, residents look for others who homes and companies could be organized in one routine and go to work together with a car.
Case Description: 

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Several residents whose homes and companies could be organized in one routine share a car of one of them for going to work. A good transportation solution is provided for those people who haven’t their own car, which does in crease the life quality much in practise. Those owners of car in groups share much economic pressure with others. The transportation pressure in rush time decreases.  Social connections between residents increase. 

Benefits (Social, and environmental benefits): 

It is totally self-organized with strong motivation and sustainability: to have the services instead of the products.

Aquarius – Social elderly community of age 55+

Submitted by joonsbaek on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 6:25am

Countries

Netherlands

Tags

co-housing

Themes

housing, do-it-yourself, community building
Link: 
Aquarius
Stakeholders / Promoters: 
elderly people aged between 55 and 65, Eindhoven housing society
Background/ Context: 
In 1984 a group of elderly people who did not feel comfortable living alone, but even less comfortable living in a home for the elderly, took the initiative to establish a community for the elderly in Eindhoven. These people wanted a housing environment that was better adjusted to the needs and wishes of their age. Some of these people lived on their own and felt lonely. Other people felt insecure in their own houses and wanted to get a fell safer feel.
Case Description: 

사용자 삽입 이미지

(Source: Yanick Aarsen, Emiel Lagarde, Dick Rutten & Niko Vegt, 2005)

Aquarius is a community where elderly people spend their days in a socially active environment.
About 45 older people live there and each couple has their own private home and garden, but also uses a communal space and large communal garden. The inhabitants help each other out as much as possible. A committee organises the community: one of its tasks is to select new inhabitants. People can apply if they are aged between 55 and 65, to make sure there is always a mix of younger and older residents.
Benefits (Social, and environmental benefits): 

Society: Living in Aquarius encourages active social contact and helps keep inhabitants’ lives as meaningful as possible, in a safe, friendly environment. Members probably remain active and independent for longer and the need for nursing of senior citizens is reduced for society in general. Aquarius encourages the distribution of giving and receiving aid over the retirement years. 

Environment: As most of the activities take place within Aquarius, transport intensity is minimised.

Couch Surfing

Submitted by joonsbaek on Mon, 06/20/2011 - 11:25pm

Countries

United States

Tags

Sharing apartments

Themes

community building, housing
Link: 
Couch Surfing
Stakeholders / Promoters: 
Couch Surfing (NPO), travelers around the world
Background/ Context: 
The idea solidified when founder, Casey Fenton, got a cheap ticket to Iceland for a long weekend one April. With his ticket in hand, there was one problem: he had no place to stay and no desire to rot in a hotel all weekend and play Mr. Tourist. So, he came up with the ‘brilliant’ idea of spamming over 1500 Icelandic students in Reykjavik and asking them if he could crash on one of their couches. After exchanging emails with many of the students, he had several groups of friends offer to show him ‘their’ Reykjavik. So, after spending an amazing, crazy weekend just south of the Arctic Circle, Casey decided he would never again get trapped in a hotel and tourist marathon while traveling. And, thus, the Couch surfing Project was born.
Case Description: 

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(Source: Luo Lan's caes study on Couch Surfing, 2008)

Surfing a couch means to have a possibility to stay in a surfer’s house for free during travel, and making friends with them. After sign up on the site, and verified by administrator, people have opportunity to meet new friends in different cities, people can invite or be invited to surf their couches. This service is available to everyone who is open to cultural exchange and building human network. It also helps people to learn about other countries as people are the most important part of it.

The aim of this project is to establish a global network of people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance and facilitate cultural understanding. Well described in its mission, ‘Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time’, Couch surfing aims at making the world a better place by opening it up and establishing connections through cultural exchange.
Benefits (Social, and environmental benefits): 

• Social benefits: By opening minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available, Couch surfing creates deep and meaningful connections across nations and cultures. Couch surfing wants to change not only the way people travel, but how people relate to the world. Also it’s a perfect tool to help generate trust and bring people all together.

• Economical benefits: “Couch surfing” is a good choice for travelers who has a tight budget because the service is basically “free”. It is based on gift economy and the service is offered without use of money or any other form of payment.
• Environmental benefits: Couch surfing reduces demand for hotel rooms, which in turn reduces the consumption of building materials and energy for maintenance. This is even more important in the developing world, where hotels are regularly built in ecologically sensitive areas like beaches, forests, and wetlands.