Civil Society Organizations utilize a variety of spaces for their meetings, with the majority using private spaces like churches, cafes, and private residences. But where are all of these places located?
In the Bloomington Project of The Observing Civic Engagement Lab, we have identified nearly 100 spaces across the city collected from almost 1000 meetings over an 18-month period. Bloomington has about 80,000 residents and is home to Indiana University, the largest university in the state. The city’s public transportation lines generally run north/south and east/west, intersecting near the university and downtown.
Where are CSOs happening?
Not surprisingly, meeting spaces for CSOs generally cluster in downtown neighborhoods (also near the university) and along major transportation corridors.
But what about the rest of Bloomington?
The southeast side of Bloomington contains more expensive houses and relatively high population density. Few convenings occur in this part of the city. Those that do occur in these neighborhoods only include private spaces. This means that a $7 latte could be the de facto price of admission to a club meeting in private spaces like coffee spaces or restaurants. This is a potentially important dynamic we want to examine further.
Most meetings outside of the downtown area occur on the northwest side of Bloomington – where median home values are lower and housing density higher.
Distribution of convening geography across Bloomington
Our findings about the geography of meeting spaces suggest that civic activity is not evenly spread around a city. It clusters in some areas and is missing from others. We’re not sure why yet—that’s research for another day—but we suspect these patterns have implications for what neighborhoods feel like on the ground and what neighborhood residents might be able to do in response to unexpected local events.
If you’re curious about the general demographics of Bloomington, Indiana, you can find data from 2022 here on Data USA.