Resources related to today's discussion

Today we talked about two places that present noteworthy alternatives to the norms of diagnosing and either institutionalizing or isolating those who are different or extraordinary.

L'Arche

Here is the book I am reading where I learned about these communities where the so-called normal folks try to live and love with so called different folks on a basis of equality rather than separation: Living Gently in a Violent World by Hauerwas and Vanier.

Interestingly for us, this community was founded by Christians, although it is open to people of all faiths. Here is the wikipedia page about their international network of communities.

Here are their USA communities. I noticed they have one in Erie PA and Washington DC. Although we obviously can't get to one in an hour and a half during our scheduled class time, I would be open to coordinating a visit with any students who are interested in learning from them first hand. I would be willing to volunteer my time over a weekend or break. If the spirit is willing but the wallet is weak, we will find a solution, so that won't be a barrier.

Vidarasen and other villages in europe

Here is the book by Nils Christie: Beyond Loneliness and Institutions

It sounds like it shares some basic similarities with L'Arche, without the religious origin, and with several differences in practice too. So far I couldn't find any official website for these communities (either that, or it was in Norwegian and I can't tell... and my family never passed on their knowledge of Swedish, which is different enough from Norwegian anyway).

However here is a review of a film about Vidarasen and another similar community in Russia.

Although neither of these books are of course going to be required at this point, it would really be helpful if someone interested chooses to read them and give me feedback about whether they might be useful to assign to future classes.

Finally we talked about the Simple Way, which as far as I know isn't a community where 'normal' and 'disabled' live together (although I'm starting to feel that normality is pretty disabled). However it is an interesting alternative community and they do outreach to different people who live around them. I had difficulty getting into contact with them even though I tried getting involved in the church that they seemed to be affiliated with. BTW as you may know this place was set up by Shane Claiborne, our celebrated Eastern grad. I read his book with Chris Haw: 'Jesus for President' before the Fall term and it's one of the things that (a) convinced me that Eastern might have some potential to support the ideals I read about in the gospel but hardly encountered in a church and (b) to be skeptical in this political season and start taking responsibility for change rather than deferring hopes for that onto leaders.