Page 2 RAIN September/October 1985 RAINDROPS RAIN Volume XI, Number 6 September/October 1985 Coordinating Editor F. Lansing Scott Copy Editor Ralph Coulson Contributing Editor Steve Johnson Editorial Assistant Madeline Dalrymple Circulation Manager Alan Locklear Intern Rebecca Foy Golden Contributors Steven Ames Rob Baird Bruce Borquist Barbara George John McKnight Mark Roseland Joel Schatz Stephen Schneider Ethan Selzer Graphic Design Susan Applegate Printing; Argus Printing Typesetting: Irish Setter RAIN magazine publishes information that can help people make their communities and regions economically self-reliant, and build a society that is durable, just, and ecologically sound. RAIN is published six times a year by the Center for Urban Education. RAIN subscription and editorial offices are located at 3116 North Williams, Portland, OR 97227; 503/249-7218. Subscriptions are $18/year ($12.00 for persons with incomes under $7,500 a year). For additional information on subscriptions and publications, see page 39. Writers' guidelines are available for a SASE. Editorial and advertising deadlines are two months prior to publication date. RAIN is indexed in the Alternative Press Index and New Periodicals Index. Copyright © 1985 Center for Urban Education. No part may be reprinted without written permission. ISSN 0739-621x. Cover: Peace rally photo by Barbara Gun- dle, 1984. A Slight Change In the Weather As we've explained in recent issues, this year RAIN merged its operations with Portland's Center for Urban Education. With this merger come some changes and clarifications in our editorial direction. Although some of the details are still being discussed, we thought we'd provide you with some of the broader outlines as they are emerging. As many of you know, RAIN was subtitled "The Journal of Appropriate Technology" up until the beginning of 1984. We had always conceived of appropriate technology in broad terms, discussing the ramifications for social institutions and personal lifestyles as well as its technical aspects. "Appropriate technology" seemed to be a very useful umbrella concept throughout the seventies for incorporating a whole range of concerns, such as renewable energy development, recycling, sustainable agriculture, community land trusts, frugal lifestyles, and so on. But as we entered the eighties, A.T. began to seem less useful as a way of describing what RAIN was about. There were many reasons for this. One was that, despite our best efforts, many people (especially those not already in our circles) continued to confuse appropriate technology with simply "new gadgets," especially new energy gadgets, without including the wider social context that seemed important to us. And as public concern about the "Energy Crisis," one of the driving forces behind the appropriate technology movement, began to wane, and as the business of developing new energy gadgets became increasingly commercialized and thus removed from people's everyday experience, RAIN'S old identification seemed to relegate us to an increasingly marginal role in the world. Since dropping "The Journal of Appropriate Technology" as our subtitle, we have been doing some casting about for a new umbrella term, a new central organizing principle, that will bring together in a coherent fashion the range of concerns we are involved in. In our discussions, one idea that has continued to assert its importance is the notion of community. For us, an important aspect of appropriate technology has been that it should enrich relationships between people rather than isolate them as most of our prevailing technologies have done. RAIN has always sought to empower people to work together in their communities to respond to various human needs in an equitable and ecologically sound manner. Our book Knowing Home perhaps best typifies this approach. "Community," "knowing home," "working together," "politics of place"— these are some of the words and phrases that keep cropping up in our discussions about the future direction of RAIN. We see local community as a place where people of different races, cultural traditions, social classes, and political ideologies can work together on practical projects and transcend some of these differences. We also see community as a place where the values of participation, social justice, non-violent conflict resolution, and ecological harmony can be put into practice. Clearly, using the concept of community as a primary touchstone for RAIN content is not a change in our direction so much as a clarification and slight shift in emphasis, one that may narrow our range of subject matter in some ways and expand it in others. If you have any comments on any of the ideas expressed here, we'd love to hear from you. This Issue The theme of community pervades this issue. The lead article by John McKnight demonstrates the way both land and community can be damaged by "new and improved" technological and social innovations. Toward the end of the article, McKnight suggests a return to traditional wisdom to help cultivate community. Traditional wisdom is found in abun-
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