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Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz

Founder / Co-Director, The Gopher Illustrated

TEDCRED 100+
TED FellowAssociate

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What do organized communities achieve more efficiently than government? What could they achieve?"

Live TED Conversation: Join TED Fellow Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz!

Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz’s eye-popping editorial projects, collaborations and celebrated festivals are creating “pathways to coexistence and tolerance.”

This conversation will open at 11:00am CDT/ 1 pm EDT on Friday 07th, 2011.

Related Talks:
Topics: Future Cities Live Conversation Social activism community democracy future government philanthropy self-organization social change
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    Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz 100+

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    TED FellowAssociate
    Oct 7 2011: Good points, they bring to mind Majora Carter's talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/majora_carter_s_tale_of_urban_renewal.html). It seems like the consensus is that communities can fix their local problems more efficiently than governments but then the question becomes how can communities be engaged to collaborate and forge a sense of common identity?
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      Sebastian Betti 500+

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      Oct 7 2011: I think much of the motivation to be engaged and collaborate depends on the community's motivation to achieve a goal. The government could provide tools designed to achieve goals that meet the needs alreeady present in these communities. Or, even better, they should provide tools such as citizens can easily create their own social goals and encourage others to engage in them.
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        Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz 100+

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        TED FellowAssociate
        Oct 7 2011: Hi Sebastian! I agree with you about motivators for community engagement born of need or desire for a common goal, but so often, despite a great deal of potential motivation, there is no engagement. On the flipside there's also the hope that though these types of motivators spark community action, that the community itself is strengthened through other forms of engagement so that future collaborations could take other forms (say, a neighborhood festival, a food fair...)

        Only tangentially related to this last paragraph are the crowdsourced initiatives by city govt's to solve problems, I'm particularly thinking of transportation initiatives: http://www.fta.dot.gov/planning/programs/planning_environment_8711.html

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