{"id":1358,"date":"2016-11-30T17:33:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T22:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2016-12-08T17:51:37","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T22:51:37","slug":"elite-institutions-and-local-communities-whats-the-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/2016\/11\/30\/elite-institutions-and-local-communities-whats-the-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Elite Institutions and Local Communities: What’s The Connection?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As our\u00a0our\u00a0semester long research project at the Chilean School comes to a close, I am left with some\u00a0unanswered questions. Mainly, these questions are about how elite institutions insist on maintaining ties with their local communities while marketing themselves as global citizens; the ideologies behind elite institutions often conflict with the ideologies and practices of local communities. The benefits of being a global citizen are obvious to me: individuals can be more included in a worldwide setting, thus competitive in an economy that\u00a0is becoming increasingly global due to a rise in technology and communication. Simultaneously, the label of global eliteness implies\u00a0that you have the cultural, economic, and social capital to be successful in such a diverse environment.<\/p>\n

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\"worldly\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is not as obvious to me, however, is why these elite institutions place such an emphasis\u00a0on involving themselves in their local communities. And as a natural extension, I began asking myself why\u00a0I\u00a0<\/em>insist on involving myself in the local community. If being elite is about the exclusivity and accumulation of power, then why do students at elite institutions like Colby concern themselves with issues in Waterville, Maine? For example, an internship at a banking firm in New York will undoubtedly give me prestige in the form of money, connections, networking opportunities, etc. The benefits of this work are\u00a0undeniable. On\u00a0the other hand, and at\u00a0the serious risk of sounding really bad,\u00a0what will volunteering as a CCAK mentor do for me in the accumulation of power? With President Greene’s recent investment in downtown Waterville as our our example, why does Colby place such an emphasis on involving itself\u00a0with the local community?<\/p>\n

\"meme\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The\u00a0complicated relationship between being globally elite\u00a0while simultaneously being involved in the community is not unique to Colby. In fact, this relationship has been present in nearly every reading that we have completed this semester not to mention it has been very apparent in our student case studies at the Chilean School. For example,\u00a0our student has lived on two\u00a0different continents and views himself as a global citizen. He is well traveled, financially comfortable, and attends an elite institution. At the same time, he engages in community service work in his community. WHY?<\/strong> What will serving meals to the homeless at his church do to affect his accumulation of power? In exploring this question, I have produced a few possible hypotheses.<\/p>\n

First, the word charity came to mind.\u00a0\"charity\"<\/a>Could it be that elite individuals and institutions involve themselves in their local community as an act of charity? Or do they do it for some form of personal satisfaction? Perhaps, our Chilean student or President Greene are so adamant about being involved in the community because it justifies their power. In his work, Pierre Bourdieu calls this process “legitimization”; after our recent investment in Waterville, local residents may acknowledge that Colby is elite, but because of the way in which we exert our power positively in the community, they may not hold resentment towards our institution.<\/p>\n

Another possible reason that I produced was the assertion of power. In other words, helping those who are in need of your monetary resources, advice, mentorship, volunteer hours, etc. puts the “helper” in a position of power and reinforces a hierarchy.\u00a0I don’t necessarily agree that this is the reason for community involvement (at least I hope it is not), but it is worth mentioning because it examines power relationships that may happen at a subconscious level. Perhaps there isn’t an explicit rhetoric that elite institutions help their local communities because “they’re better than them and want to prove it”, but assisting local communities without including them in the exclusive elite institution is only a bandaid: it helps the community in the moment, but does nothing to affect real change in terms of power\u00a0relations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Regardless of the reason, the balance between global citizen and local citizen has been an interesting yet perplexing dynamic. And like many of the topics that we explored this semester, my classmates and I have been able to examine it from a personal perspective. Because I attend an elite institution, I can ask myself: why do I include myself\u00a0in the local community? I suppose part of it is a natural guilt that comes with attending an expensive college in the middle of a low-income community. And another part is that I truly enjoy working with the students that I volunteer with. And though we hate<\/em> to admit it, part of it is probably the reference we get to put on our resume. Regardless of the reasons, one can not discuss the relationship between global and local citizens without exploring the influence of power.<\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As our\u00a0our\u00a0semester long research project at the Chilean School comes to a close, I am left with some\u00a0unanswered questions. Mainly, these questions are about how elite institutions insist on maintaining ties with their local communities while marketing themselves as global citizens; the ideologies behind elite institutions often conflict with the ideologies and practices of local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5648,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5648"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1530,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}