ALLISON SCHRAGER | THE MICROPHILANTHROPIST | May 24th 2008

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Smarting from a reader's complaint that she lacked a sense of community, Allison Schrager goes hunting for useful ways to donate her time. Maybe there's something to this whole volunteer-work thing after all?

I always considered myself a non-joiner; proudly unaffiliated, blazing my own path, the renegade yuppie of the Upper West Side. So when a reader, in response to an earlier piece I wrote on volunteer-work, suggested I lacked a sense of community, I wondered if he had a point. Maybe I do need to "get my hands dirty", and appreciate what it means to engage with my neighbours. Perhaps the "costs" I had calculated before, which valued my time (which is scarce) over my money (which is slightly less scarce), didn't fully factor in the benefits of community involvement.

So can I, the loner, rational economist, find this mythic sense of community? And, how will I know it when I do? Will I have more friends, more dates? Or will I suddenly feel a serene sense of connection to people around me? I have decided to dedicate this column to explore how I, a microphilanthropist, can apply my desire to do good to becoming an integral member of my community.

Social psychologists have spent years defining we mean when we say a "sense of community". Seymour Sarason's 1974 book, "The Psychological Sense of Community: Prospects for a Community Psychology," characterises a psychological sense of community as "the perception of similarity to others, an acknowledged interdependence with others, a willingness to maintain this interdependence by giving to or doing for others what one expects from them, and the feeling that one is part of a larger dependable and stable structure."

Achieving a sense of community, according to Sarason's definition, involves more than joining just any organisation. The perception of similarity to others is crucial. I must choose a community with which I have a sincere connection or feeling of commonality. Keeping up my end of the interdependence will require a genuine commitment.

First I must consider with whom I am looking to establish this connection. Do I want to expand my social network and make new friends? Or do I want to get to know my neighbours by discovering common values and a shared sense of purpose? Ideally, I want some combination of both. I love my chosen home city--New York--and would like to make it a better place. I find the prospect of spending time with other locals, with whom I have little in common but a shared love of the city and a desire to serve it, compelling. I anticipate finding this kind of community would deepen my connection to the city. Also, the possibility of expanding my social network sounds appealing because, frankly, my social life could always stand for more excitement.

Besides feeling better about where I live and making more friends, community engagement might make me a better economist. I hear sociology is the new economics. Instead of being concerned with providing individuals with economic freedom and low taxes to achieve their dreams, politicians want happy, supportive communities amongst their constituents. To an economist this sounds like a bunch of hooey--I feel instinctively hostile to anything that questions my libertarian sensibility, particularly if it involves us all joining hands in the service of feeling better about ourselves. But, perhaps these ideals are not mutually exclusive. Economies and communities do coexist; indeed, they thrive together. Cooperation and trust leads to better economic decision-making, innovation and ultimately higher rates of growth.

The quickest and most effective way to achieve a greater sense of community entails volunteering my time and affiliating with local organisations. While I am excited about donating my resources--both time and money--to worthy causes, I am immediately filled with anxiety at the idea. Remember, I am no joiner. Are the people who get involved in the community the phoney, enthusiastic types I hated in school? Will I have to play trust games?

I spoke with many friends and acquaintances about community engagement. I was surprised to learn how many people I know have been, all this time, quietly donating their time and money. I queried about their motivations and the outcome of their engagement. Despite a diverse array of projects, everyone I spoke with had common reasons for their involvement.

New York is a large city with many anonymous people. You often speak to the same several people each week. All the while, you pass by complete strangers each day who have the potential to enrich your life. Some joined groups to increase their business network. Many hoped to increase the quality and quantity of their dating pool. These motivations may sound selfish, but ultimately they seem to be what community-building is about. Also, most chose organisations that fit Sarason's definition: they affiliated themselves with worthy causes to which they felt connected.

To start, a friend on the junior committee of New York Cares, an organisation of mostly young professionals who participate in local volunteer projects, invited me to a benefit. There I spoke with several people who worked in a wide range of projects. One man said his experience with with AIDS patients set him on a new career path in the health industry. Another said he helped local ten-year olds with their schoolwork every week. The projects seemed to benefit both the volunteers and their recipients, and everyone seemed sincere in their enthusiasm. I was impressed by the genuine connection these volunteers had made with the people they work with. No one seemed trite or treacly. 

While the benefit was fun (and useful for New York Cares), a party is not enough to cultivate a sense of community. But I was inspired enough by the experience and my conversations with others to embark on a volunteering project of my own (which I'll share more about in my next piece).

The economist in me always saw beauty in the discerning market, which provides real rewards to only the most talented. But successful community-building thrives on inclusion rather than exclusivity. Higher participation rates make for a stronger, stabler and more dependable community, enhancing the experience for everyone involved. Economies and communities thrive together, which means even an economist can (and in this case will) achieve a sense of community.

(Allison Schrager is an economist based in New York.)