Body Sense: Community Building and Residents Physical Participation

Abstract

Community building is inseparable from the participation of the local residents. Participation pre-supposes the existence of the body, however, the existing research on residents’ willingness to participate in the community building, mostly focused on the residents’ mind, and ignored the residents’ body, showing a kind situation of “being without physically present”. This paper attempts to analyze the subjectivity of the body in the practice of community building. The article demonstrated, that resident participation is not only a single active process of consciousness, but it is also a process of embodied experience. The body is the medium through which the individual is related to the external community intentions. The body senses will perceive, and received environmental information such as sensory stimulation, situational atmosphere, and presented as the real need of the subject. The body is an important aspect, however, rarely discusses, therefore, the body sense should not be ignored during community builders.