8 Ways I Engage in City Life
I spent a lot of time on the sidelines of soccer fields, watching my teenaged son play competitive club soccer. I often think of one dad who would yell to his son on the field. The son was a strong player yet disengaged from the game every once and a while. The dad would bellow, from deep within with a magical Eastern European accent: “GET INVOLVED!!”
This dad offered a message for the soccer field and citizenship—to be a part of making things happen, it is necessary to get involved. When your mates need and expect your participation, you need to be involved.
When on the field, stay involved. Take breaks but remain aware. When off the field, you get to sit and rest. Take a break. You don’t take a break while on the field.
“Get involved” means:
Pay attention. Keep your eye on the ball as well as the players with the ball, near the ball and far away from the ball. Pay attention to all of the moving pieces that are in play.
Be prepared for things to change at any moment. Be ready to shift your position. Take a stance that allows you to move in multiple directions in multiple ways.
Respond. Move and act as necessary, with or without the ball. Move with the game’s flow, the ball, the players on your team and the other team.
Reflect on what works—and does not—as the game unfolds. And afterwards.
“Get involved” means being in the game while on the field. The words denote a degree of engagement while in the game, rather than being a spectator. When you choose to play soccer, you are not a spectator on the field. You are a player. You’re not there to watch. To be playing the game, you must get involved.
“‘Get involved’ means being in the game while on the field.”
There are many games in play
As I imagine the “soccer fields” of the city, I recognize that it is impossible for me to be a part of, let alone keep track of, every initiative or project that people undertake to improve our city.
Who is playing?
People across the city work to improve their city. We do this part of our formal, paid work, as well as our unpaid work. There are four general categories of voices in the city that work to improve the city, each in their own way:
Civic managers are the elected officials and staff who are responsible for looking after the public interest, are our local government, school boards, and health authorities
Civic builders and developers build the cities we live in. They are the developers, builders and contractors who build the structures of our city. They are the business community.
Civic organizations are the service organizations, not-for-profits, and community organizations that serve as the city’s conscience and culture.
Citizens are the individuals who live in our city, each with a unique perspective of the city. Each citizen needs from, and offers to, the city something different.
Marilyn Hamilton’s 4 Voices of the Integral City
Within and across these voices are myriad other voices present in the city: generations and ages, cultures and ethnicities, genders and orientations, etc.
Where are we playing?
The work we do to improve the city takes place at many scales. Some projects are relevant to specific areas of the city. For example, I am more likely to get involved by picking up garbage in my neighbourhood than in another neighbourhood.
Marilyn Hamilton’s Integral City Holarchy
I don’t pay attention to many of the improvements many others make in the city, but that does not mean I don’t care. It means I pay attention to the things that are closer to my life experience. I trust that others, while they pay attention to the things that are closer to their experience, organize themselves to improve what needs improving around them.
The smaller the geography, the more likely I am to pay little attention to other geographies. What happens in my neighbourhood catches my attention more than in another neighbourhood. It’s not that it’s not important; it’s not relevant to my experience of the city.
What are we playing?
Some projects and initiatives to improve the city involve specific groups of people, people with a shared culture and/or a shared interest. Depending on our interests, where we “play” can change over time. For example, when I was a young mom with small kids I volunteered with a neighbourhood playgroup; my kids are now in their twenties and I no longer volunteer in this way. I have a White body and I choose to pay attention to local Indigenous Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter movements in my city.
People gather all over the city, and between cities, to work together to improve our economic, social, cultural and ecological wellbeing. In ways I am not aware of, people gather to take initiative and create projects of improvement.
8 roles I play in city life
I am aware of 8 different roles I play while engaging in the city and communities around me. At the heart of these roles is the attention I pay to the potential topics of interest.
There is a lot to pay attention to in the city, and I pay close attention to only a few topics. That is all I can do. In this, I trust that others are paying close attention to what I miss and that together we have it all covered. The vast majority of the topics I could pay attention to in the city receive little of my attention. And select few get a lot of my attention.
Building on that dad’s call to “get involved” in the soccer game, here are eight roles I recognize in myself in terms of how I engage in the city and communities around me.
1. The less than spectator
I am oblivious to the events and initiatives around me in this role. I am not connected to action to improve the city, unconscious of the city’s investments that serve myself and others. I choose to not participate in community decision making. I am unaware of examples because I am unconscious.
2. The uninformed spectator
I know that the game is happening in this role, but that is the extent of my awareness. Like the less-than-spectator, I do not take action to improve the city. I have a choice to make about being more informed or involved.
Example: I know that there is an initiative to improve waste disposal in my city, but I know no more than this.
3. The spectator fan
As a spectator fan, I pay attention to events and I am informed. I am an observer of the action. I have a choice to make about being more informed or involved—or less.
Example: I know that we are building a new light rail transit line in the city. I choose to drive along the route to witness the construction, and I monitor the construction timelines, so I know when to expect to ride the new train. (I chose to move to a new home within two blocks of a station.)
4. The spectator superfan
As a spectator superfan, I am invested in an idea or project, whether for or against. I am well informed, and the project is a part of my identity. I am an observer of the project with a great deal of intensity, and I have strong opinions. I have a choice to make about being more informed or involved—or less.
Example: I pay a lot of attention to the transportation choices in my city and how we privilege the movement of cars over the movement of people.
5. The spectator analyst
As a spectator analyst, I am a very informed observer who shares insights about events. I have a choice to make about being more informed or involved—or less.
Example: I watch what people say the purpose is for a meeting and then examine the design of the meeting to determine if the processes align with the purpose.
6. The player
As a player, I am actively working on the initiative, making decisions about a project and its implementation in real life. I am taking action and shaping the action we take as a team. I also choose who to involve—who to “play” with.
Example: I worked on a team of colleagues to engage people across my city to create an action plan for city government to foster mid-rise and medium-density residential development in my city’s older neighbourhoods.
7. The coach
As a coach, I support the people in the field, teach them about the plays and when to use them. I guide the action. I choose the players, who to develop, who will play where. I also choose to direct the play or support the players as they find their way together.
Example: I coached a team of city employees who were heading out to meet with groups of angry citizens. I taught them listening skills, how to handle angry people, designed a format for the meeting that will serve both them and angry citizens.
8. The manager
As a manager, I play the game around the game, making sure we look after longer-term interests. I guide the action and gather resources to support the action. I choose the coaches and work on relationships with other parties to ensure success.
Example: I led a team tasked with engaging my whole city about our vision for ourselves. I created a team to implement a vision to engage the four perspectives above and to reach citizens whose voices are rarely heard in city planning work. I crafted and held the primary question for our project: what choices do we need to make to be a healthy, urban and climate resilient city of two million people that supports a prosperous region?
It’s not necessary for me to be everywhere at once
If you are like me, you may feel, at times, like everything important is what needs your attention. I have come to understand and trust that what has my attention is what needs my attention. Not what I think should have my attention, or what I think others would think should have my attention. I don’t need to work on everything important to make a meaningful contribution.
What comes with this understanding is acknowledging that what has others’ attention is what needs their attention. Most of the time, we don’t need to have the same priorities. We benefit, individually and collectively, from simultaneously addressing multiple challenges.
If I do not need to be everywhere at once, I do need to consider the consequences of my actions and ask these questions:
How does my action to improve the city harm another’s ability to improve the city?
Does improvement to me mean harm to others?
How do our efforts to improve the city align, and how do they conflict?
What strategies can we use to mitigate the conflicts, enabling more broad improvements?
So while we don’t each need to be everywhere at once, we do need to pay attention to the intersection of our efforts. As a spectator, I need to be aware of how the “game” has negative consequences for many. As a player, coach, and manager, I need to be playing with the other teams, working on other initiatives to ensure that our efforts meet mutual needs.
And as a less-than-spectator, I need to hear how my life, how I live it, harms others’ ability to improve the city. Whatever my level of engagement, I must be open to feedback from others on any topic. Even if unintended, the consequences of my work, paid or unpaid, are relevant.
REFLECTION
Where do I participate as a spectator in city life? (Initiatives or projects that I watch)
Where do I participate as a player, coach or manager in city life? (Initiatives or projects that I work on)
Who appears to have competing interests? And how could we start working together to meet mutual needs?