- The capacity of a conversation to form novel patterns of meaning and relating depends on the participants’ responsiveness – the degree to which they perceive each other’s gestures and affective states (consciously or unconsciously) and modify their own responses accordingly.
- The potential for novelty to emerge in a conversation depends on the originality and breadth of associations made by participants (the “associative richness”). Associative richness, in turn, depends on the diversity of gestures and other stimuli available to the conversation (the substrate from which associations are formed) and on the extent to which the participants use them to form, publicly offer and retain new associations (their associative capacity).
- The themes in the conversation about the conversation itself – what can be said or done by whom, and to whom – constrain the conversation. This aspect of conversation (sometimes referred to as “process communication”) consists of themes about the here-and-now state of relationship and power, and is expressed predominantly in the language of non-verbal behavior rather than in words (Cohen-Cole, 1991; Silverman, 1998)
This got me thinking about the meeint I went to this weekend . . . Yea that was complexity and communication in action . . . none of this pretend BS orchastrated in this class.
So then I posted my message:
eric weaver to community_sust. show details 9:13 AM (19 minutes ago) Reply
> THere was recently a talk for the Urban Charrette Committee--
Interesting meeting. I rode my bike over after lunch and sat through the last few presentations sorta watching the crowd dynamics and the presenters. I did meet someone from the county. Funny he was the guy that did the concurrency traffic counts or the lack there of. He said he's getting ready to retire and wants to start teaching in High School or something. Preferably greening and sustainability issues. We chatted a bit more and exchanged business cards.
They had a room full of products that I walked through before entering the resentation room. There in the center was a big map of the Hillsborough River from the Dam to the Bay. There were little postit dots of four different colors scattered along it, indicating parks, transit, community and business centers I think.
As the presentation ended they moved these tables into the presentation room and everyone gathered around the maps to talk more about the river. All the presentations were about Greening initiatives and success in other cities and such. The people who set it all up started explaining everything. This was a grass-roots effort to get Tampa more focused on this river. Evidently people have tried this before and the politicians were waiting to see if this effort lasted more than a few months. They talked about how the Tampa Heights Civic Association started with just a few Realtors at first... but now a letter from the president gets a quick reply from the Mayor....
They talked about how the map was set up and wanting to start at the Dam and talk about the dots people had put there - - if the people were still around. Then they said how the biggest issue that came up in the surveys was getting more access to the River. Of course the first yellow dot south of the Dam was in my back yard. . . . lol . . . .
Finally as they were speaking about wanting more community input, even individual citizen comments. I said how the individual citizens under that first dot had filed a petition with the City and now have the area designated as a City Park. We even have a trail laid out in mulch. There is even a boat ramp there all over grown, but I can still get my kayak down into the river.
Alex who was running the show was thrilled as the maps already had the "new city trails" marked on them. He gave me the black sharpie to mark out the new trails. It was kinda funny, since I had ridden my bike through there to get to the meeting. I marked my path onto the map and then added the other trails they built, and even a new one they has started through a forest the city didn't know they owned. The
owner wanted to donate the property to STARS and I helped him with another 30
acres across the street. But since that one was such a permitting nightmare he decided to donate this one to the city instead....I told them when we first petitioned the city about the mountain of hurricane mulch there we asked for them to use the mulch to make a trail for us. Course the city
was thrilled with that idea and so we had to lay out a plan for the trails. And this included a loop around this forest and they never knew they owned it, so they had to check with the county property appraisers. Course then the City's Solid Waste Department wanted to use the land to build a transfer station and all Seminole Heights came out to fight that idea. Now they are expanding the trail, adding speed bumps down the road leading to it, and have a new City Park sign and a new gate . . . slowly but surely. . .
Guess I'll be going to the next meetings.... certainly cool to see the emergence from the complexity....
They asked if anyone could write a recommendation letter to them for a grant. Course after I wrote and sent it I thought they might want it from an Engineer instead.... lol ...
