It’s interesting when we think of ourselves as ‘minorities’ (I mean, I speak from white-priviledge, right?) but I think that we all have our spheres where we feel empowered to be able to actively participate and there are others for whatever reason we might be more peripheral participants or simply not have the ability to participate at all. Alan says he felt as an outsider as a N. American at OEB16 and I felt like an outsider as a Brit at DML – but we all still have valuable contributions to make in discussions (thinking about post-Brexit and the buildup to the election in October) – and we all have a lot to learn from observation, it’s how we build empathy no?

It’s not to say that the communities we make are wrong or are not inclusive. We are fluid beings and the ways in which we participate will always shift and change — you may go on a VConnecting vacation but that’s not to say you won’t be on the periphery watching and learning, y’know?

I think we have to rethink what we mean by engagement and participation – what are the factors that force us into thinking we are an outsider in any given space? Inside and outside also feels very binary – I don’t feel as though I am super ‘in’ VConnecting, for example, but I certainly don’t feel ‘out’ either. There are always going to be extremes and strong tight bonds within communities, it is just how it is (we have strong ties to our family, looser ones to our close friends and they get looser and looser but it doesn’t mean that these ties are any less valuable).

That’s a bit of a blah rant, apologies Maha (still getting over my cold!)