What Goes On Among Us?
Toward Healthier Group and Social Dynamics

(was) on

Free Radio Berkeley (see below)

 

This was a radio show about group and social dynamics. In 1997 on Thursday afternoons before the news at Free Radio Berkeley was Community Space, shared by The Ecology Center, The Berkeley Free Clinic, and me and others. I was on once a month for a few months.

What do I mean by group & social dynamics?

I mean the patterns that we see in what goes on among people as individuals, and what goes on among the many larger categories (neighborhood, class, nation, race, age, sex, religion, culture, language, etc.) that we are each a part of. What I'm really trying to get at is that we can pay attention to and respond to these patterns, and learn things that can make our social organization healthier and more sustainable (socially and environmentally), and more valuable and enjoyable for more of us as individuals.

I'm not saying I think we know a lot about this, in fact I think we know very little. And that's why I'm trying to reach out and connect some of these ideas to one another, and to people who may not have heard of them yet.

(To get a lot more on the group-level dynamics angle look up the Center for Group Learning (CGL) web site.)

What actually happened on the show?

I interviewed people with experience organizing, consulting, facilitating, etc. groups of people. There are many ideas about how groups work and the different learning experiences people can go through (formal and informal), and I try to introduce a wide array of these ideas.

I announced some opportunities to attend group learning experiences (mostly from group-L, the Center for Group Learning's mailing list).

I read news about sunshine legislation and other information- and communication-related issues.

I played music.

I closed the last show i read with a powerful article about listening by Brenda Ueland, "Tell Me More" (from Strength to Your Sword Arm).

The following show's host, who was about to interview a candidate for Berkeley mayor, graciously allowed me to go over time to finish. Then he made a comment which i took as meaning that listening does not have to do with politics. It always seemed the most amazing thing to hear from someone who had just prepared to offer to hundreds or more people something to listen to.

To take myself seriously, i suppose do want to know (to listen) to what he did mean.


Please feel free to contact me at johnca@ourpla.net or you can just see John's home page.


Free Radio Berkeley (FRB)

The Latest on low-power radio [as of 2000]: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rejected 100-watt licenses but has started issuing new 1000(?)-watt licenses, mostly available in rural areas. The mega-corporations that own many radio stations are suing (National Association of Broadcasters is their trade organization). You can find out more through the links below.

Free Radio Berkeley has shut down, along with many other micropower stations, due to the FCC's police tactics, a court decision (based on a technicality, no substantive meaning for the future of low-power radio). Go to the FRB web site to get the latest, or check out Berkeley Liberation Radio.

Located in the San Francisco Bay Area's east bay, FRB reached most of Berkeley, and much of the surrounding cities (a good antenna helped). They were an unlicensed radio station standing up under FCC lawsuit, trying to establish the right of communities to establish low-power (under 100 watts) radio stations without paying outrageous (tens of thousands of dollars) startup costs and fees.

See the FRB web site. It has current activities, legal updates, etc.

Please support Free Radio Berkeley by donating money or supplies/equipment. Contact frbspd@crl.com or:

Free Radio Berkeley 104.1
1442A #406
Berkeley, CA 94709