0.3 Sense of Belonging

0.3 Sense of Belonging

Why do any of us seek to belong in the first place? First and foremost, this human social need signifies a deep psychological need for acceptance as an authentic person (Cable et al., 2013). A sense of belonging benefits us in numerous other ways. Isolation, or having few healthy social relationships, substantially increases morbidity (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010). Writers on social capital theory have hypothesized that connections between people also tend to produce resilience in other areas, such as students’ educational attainment, that are relevant to our discussion of HPL (Sretzer, 2000). When we are among people with shared values, we tend to feel a sense of connection and belonging. Moreover, although those values may vary widely from community to community, it is stipulated throughout this essay that the essential feature of a sense of belonging is member experience. When community leaders are intentional about curating this experience to support authentic and connected membership at the individual level, members naturally begin to feel a sense of connection and well-being.

In Charles E. Vogt’s (2016) the Art of Community, he offers seven principles for creating a sense of belonging in a community.

Seven Principles for Belonging

1. Boundaries - A clear delineation of what types of people belong in the community

2. Initiation - A welcome to the community that makes members feel clearly invited

3. Rituals - High-quality socialization opportunities that happen frequently

4. Temple - A space or event that attracts members because it is representative of the community values

5. Stories - Members’ experiences of the community and how they are recorded

6. Symbols - Examples of the community’s values embodied and visualized throughout the community

7. The Inner Rings - A place for the most active and focused members of the community, and where they collect over time

We can see here (and will talk about in increased detail in the next section) that these principles are primarily structural. However, they are not overtly functional - their purpose is to structure the member experience deliberately. Initiations, rituals, and symbols help welcome a member into the community and provide a clear thru-line from entry into the transition from novice to full member to elder and finally master. By interacting with these top-down design implementations and events in the lifetime of their membership, members come into contact with the values of the community, see where they are in relation to other members in the community and community process, and have opportunities to enjoy embodying each step of the process.

In our HPL community, there is also a progression through stages of membership. Although there is not enough time for members to mature into elite “masters” or perhaps even “elders”, members do make a clear progression from being an initiate and a “mentee” to becoming a member of the community capable of acting as “mentor” or peer reviewer. This functional and symbolic shift in roles occurs near the end of their HPL membership experience, just as they are preparing to transition into HGSE. In a sense, having taken and learned from the group’s feedback and offered their own, they have now rehearsed for their opportunity to contribute to the broader academic community.

These principles function by forming a triangle between a community’s values, member experiences, and structures. The principles act as visible deposits of the group’s values and identity, embedded in the structure of the community in such a way that they connect to the lives of members and become part of the member experience. However, they are not the only part of the community experience that informs a sense of belonging - the other aspect, going back to Block, is “associational life”. Block states that these associations tend to occur in small groups, where individuals find their most profound sense of belonging. “Belonging can occur through our membership in large groups, but this form of belonging reduces the power of citizens. Instead of surrendering our identity for the sake of belonging, we find in the small group a place that can value our uniqueness” (Block, 2018).

The takeaway here for our HPL community is that a sense of belonging is a feature of member experience that manifests as a sort of clarity or resolution about one’s role in the community, whether in a micro or macro sense. Ultimately, what makes a member feel at home in the community is whether or not they see themselves - their identity, shared values, and relative position in the community - reflected in the community. Formal elements of community - such as initiation, rituals, stories, and symbols - can enrich and increase the meaningfulness of member experience, which in turn increases participation in that community.

Citations:

Block, P. (2018). Community: The structure of belonging. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

Cable D. M., Gino F., & Staats B. R. (2013). Breaking Them in or Eliciting Their Best? Reframing Socialization around Newcomers’ Authentic Self-expression. Administrative Science Quarterly, 58(1):1-36. doi:10.1177/0001839213477098

Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Med, 7(7), e1000316, doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316

Szreter, S. (2000). Social capital, the economy, and education in historical perspective. In T. Schuller (ed), Social Capital: Critical Perspectives (pp. 56-77). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vogl, C. H. (2016). The art of community: Seven principles for belonging. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler, a BK Currents Book.