Building Strong Communities Through Small Gestures

How are communities formed according to Naomi Shihab Nye?

What impact do small gestures have on the ability to bring people together?

Naomi Shihab Nye suggests that communities are built around small gestures of responsibility, shared societal values and norms, and civic collaboration. However, an observed societal shift towards large, impersonal organizations threatens this interpretation of community building. Under the right circumstances, such as crises or disturbances, these impersonal groups can transform into closely-knit communities.

According to Naomi Shihab Nye, communities are formed and maintained by small actions that hold significant meaning. These small gestures, such as picking up trash or helping others, when carried out responsibly, incite a sense of community and contribute to its growth.

Relationships fostered through these gestures foster a collective agreement on communal values and norms, replacing the need for strict law enforcement. Further, developments in technology have provided a means for citizens to engage in political dialogues, thus contributing to a collective consciousness of societal wellbeing.

A shift in societal function has been observed, with an increased preference for large, impersonal organizations. While membership in such groups indicates a shared set of values, face-to-face interaction, an important element of community building, lacks in such settings. It is these small, face-to-face interactions in the context of crises or disturbances that solidify a sense of community, often transforming a group of strangers into a closely-knit community.

The concepts discussed by Nye suggest that the essential factors that construct a community are small gestures that underlie human interaction, collective morality, and civic collaboration.