Care is an interesting concept put forward by John McKnight and Peter Block in their book "The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighbors".
digraph { layout=dot rankdir=LR overlap=false consentrate=true node [style=filled shape=box] "Individuals\n& Households" [color=purple1 fontcolor=white] Care [color=orange] Ideals [color=yellow] Values [color=red] Goals [color=blue fontcolor=white] Results [color=lightblue] "Individuals\n& Households" -> Care Care -> {Ideals Values Goals Results} [label=creats] }
Over the last decade as I (Marc Pierson) have reflected on this book and its relevance, I find care to be different from the other functions in their list. While the literal physical and psychological support – caring for people – in a neighborhood is in line with the other function types.
But the care – attention, emotional relationship, intentionality – makes "care" different. I personally believe that care, in this second sense, is the strongest and most essential of the set of seven functions. It is causally up stream, a precursor, and a helpful amplifier of the other six. Care seems aligned with concepts of Hope and Love and even Trust.
I once created an inter-relationship diagraph,
digraph { layout=circo rankdir=TB overlap=false consentrate=true node [style=filled shape=box] Care [color=yellow] Security [color=orange2] Economy [color=green4 fontcolor=white] Environment [color=blue fontcolor=white] Food [color=green] Health [color=purple fontcolor=white] "Development\nof Children" [color=red fontcolor=white] Care -> {Security Economy Environment Food [color=green] Health} [color=yellow penwidth=2] Security -> {"Development\nof Children" Economy Health} [color=orange] Economy -> {"Development\nof Children" Food Security Care Health }[color=green4] Environment -> {"Development\nof Children" Food Economy Security Health} [color=blue] Food -> {"Development\nof Children" Health Care} [color=green] Health -> {"Development\nof Children" Economy Care Security} [color=purple] }
and a Bayesian belief network (using Netica) of these seven neighborhood functions.
While there are missing connections in the belief network illustration (bottom), this is the dominant pattern. Care is a conditioning variable on each other variable and even on itself. And six of the seven variables influence the Development of Children, which is the future of the neighborhood and the social system (society).
digraph { layout=dot rankdir=TB overlap=false consentrate=true node [style=filled shape=box] Care [color=yellow] Security [color=lightblue] Economy [color=lightblue] Environment [color=lightblue] Food [color=lightblue] Health [color=lightblue] "Development\nof Children" [color=lightgreen] Care -> {Security Economy Environment Food "Development\nof Children" Health} [color=red] Security -> "Development\nof Children" [color=blue] Economy -> "Development\nof Children"[color=blue] Environment -> "Development\nof Children" [color=blue] Food -> "Development\nof Children" [color=blue] Health -> "Development\nof Children" [color=blue] }
We can have care rooms and places by design.