I think that this is a very good question, of late the only people who I've seen thinking about it have been sources which I wouldnt usually would think of and I have to say I'm ambivalent about but there is a singular lack of vision elsewhere. For instance:-
http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/newsandgallery/focus/harmony_a_new_film_and_book_by_the_prince_of_wales_1075448342.html
(I might have messed up that link)
The Prince's book, I got lately and it has a lot of filler pictures and content, on the other hand it tries to take to heart some ideas about sustainability which I felt were important and community too, there was an interesting hexagonal grouping of houses within walking distance of one another with a communal space in their centre, that's just one idea, there was more about how to create a lived "share and share alike" culture or at the very least the potential for one.
I've read a lot about this and its one of my favourite topics, although I have to say that I'm not 100% convinced of many of the answers that I've read and most lately the most important things which I've reflected on are:-
- Settled community. People need to be settled. I mean that in the literal sense that they are not living a life of constant commotion, movement and travelling. Now I know that there are some people who figure that the travelling life is great and there are some communities for which it is their identity but I've got to say that in my experience the most troubled individuals and families are those which are constantly on the move.
Within housing services in northern ireland there is a virtual "circuit" which families move along, they move in some place new, have respite from whatever they left behind at their last stop for a bit, which is usually the attention of the authorities for neglectful or abusive parenting/caring of child or dependents, people they owe money to either in the community or debts they owe to businesses or the menaces or community resentment they could have built up. They have some new contacts, who dont know them but are often just like them. Eventually burn their bridges with them and fall out and off on the move again elsewhere. The cycle sets a pattern and tradition almost intergenerationally, sometimes its confounded by the fact that when kids are taken into care by the state the pattern reproduces itself with moves between care homes, while this can be made more rare with good practice with some its virtually impossible.
This does set a pattern of behaviour and thinking, avoidance is a big factor here, avoidance in feeling particular ways and facing particular natural and logical consequences and its highly correlated with other sorts of avoidance behaviour like getting big into an addiction or other kinds of a chaotic lifestyle.
- Privacy. This is a crucial factor in community life. For all that's shared there needs to be time, space and a life that isnt. It should be inviolable too without intrusion. Often a lot of anti-social behaviour arises from people intruding upon others privacy and personal space, no comprehension of appropriate boundaries between themselves and their neighbours or others lives and also there's a big factor which is peoples unwillingness or inability to tolerate being alone or spending time alone once in while.
- Interpersonal contact. I think there should be contact between people or at least is potential and opportunity for the same. Just as respecting that if you got out of the right side of the bed and the sun is shining and you want to say Hi and talk may not be reciprocated, and that's alright, there should be no environmental obsticles to it or it should be something which is supported without imposition or exclusion. If its freely choosen and there's no or little negative consequences for opting out its a good thing. The organic nature of this couldnt be stressed more, its not going to sustain or be acceptable otherwise, perhaps one way or another you'll get people to conform to one or another idea but it's artifice if its not organic and will fall apart or be phony. The important thing about this interpersonal contact, from my perspective, is that people who are different can still relate, this overlaps with the boundaries thing too.
- Intergenerational and old time/new resident contact. There has to be this too. Again I see this as important because this is one of those interfaces for conflict which can give rise to anti-social behaviour, instead it'd be nice if there was some learning and respect across generations, the opportunity for the transmission of experience and learning or at least an understand of one another so some of the dehumanisation or objectification which permits young people to torment the old and the old to vote for heavier penalties against the young doesnt take place. More recently I've reflected on how greater knowledge of just one or two generations ago among the present day youth or even more mature people, would I hope, have effected voting as they would know the extent to which, when they are being asked to accept cuts to public services and spending, that this has already happened. I also think that if this could prove successful then there could be sometime of a longer view taken about life, about politics, about a lot of things, so people dont get as impulsive and panicky as gnats or fruit flies about what they feel they need in order to be fufilled.
- Consensus on basic expectations. Its hard to get pro-social behaviour when there's no agreement as to what that is.
I take a negative view of what is pro-social a lot of the time, if people keep to themselves and are not actively being a nuisance I dont stress about the state of their garden or the disrepair of their fencing.
This was an issue a couple of years back between ourselves and some neighbours, we thankfully dont actually share a boundary with them. They were very sure that a damaged fence, damaged in a storm, was effecting their happiness in the estate and the estate as a whole. That sort of mindset, which I find very middle class, is one I dislike a lot. It also led to them hosing down any pavements which my youngest brother had drawn on with his chalks when he was a small child, that bothered me too because sometimes the behaviour was so rapid that he'd come in to tell my mum about this great picture he'd drawn and by the time my mum came out to see it it had been washed away and they'd gone and hidden in their houses again.
I think there can only ever be, and perhaps should only be sought on, agreement on the basics. Its not pro-social to seek a perfect consensus on peoples views on religion, politics, sexual habits etc. etc. For some people its nice when that occurs and they really want and crave it but I dont think its necessary to live that way and actually doing so could give you a head ache, heart burn and drive you crazy.
Anyway, that's my thinking at the moment, a lot of that is vague and its not like adjustments to the built environment like having gardens front and back, everyone owning a tree, wind turbine and solar panelled roof, electricity and light cut off or "close" times, volume limiting fail safes on consumer durables, shared exercise facilities in a communal yard or garden at the centre piece of a number of inward facing properties all in a circle or semi-circle or anything so worked out as all that. Neither have a mentioned all the different interest groups, clubs and societies I'd like to see in any sort of schema to encourage or maintain pro-social behaviour. Or schools/schooling or norms of parenting and childhood or anything like that. Just trying to keep things short.