Community is essential for any person to thrive, to find their place in the world, and to achieve psychological well-being. And although not all social plans are strictly tied to community, human beings need to be connected to something that matters deeply to them in order to progress, both physically and psychologically. Psychology Today (2023) reinforces this idea, stating that “being part of a healthy community can help us feel connected to others, as well as feel that we are part of something bigger,” something especially important for reducing stress and isolation and for feeling that we have someone’s support. For feeling that it is not just us against the world.

This is nothing new. In fact, the earliest communities existed simply to survive. Facing the dangers of life at that time alone, in most cases, meant death. That is why people came together in what we now call tribes: groups of people who joined forces to cover the basic needs for survival: food, shelter, and safety. And although the main reason for coming together was to live one more day, a sense of belonging and rootedness was also beginning to take shape in those early communities through rituals, music, funerary ceremonies, and more.

Later, with the formation of villages, towns, and cities, communities did not exist only to survive; they had a social purpose. Status, class, occupation, and religion became markers of identity, with people sharing experiences and helping one another (in some cases more than in others). And here we have a perfect example: in Bizkaia, the farming or baserritarra community was key not only to survival, but also to the tradition and sense of belonging to the land that we still have today.

Since then, communities have continued to transform alongside the years and the changing needs of humanity. Even so, the last great leap, the one with the greatest impact, was the arrival of the Internet. Communities that until then had been sustained mainly by geography became international overnight. Being able to meet people, exchange tastes, hobbies, and conversations with others from different cultures, languages, and parts of the world made communities more global than ever.

Although communities have evolved into something larger and much more abstract (as you will see in the next article, there are many types of communities), the need for survival is what still binds us to these groups of people that we need in order to feel at ease with ourselves. To keep surviving.

GEURE-GEURE KOMUNITATEA

Community is especially important when we talk about changing the world. A single person does not have the capacity to do that. Several people united, with different areas of expertise and different life experiences, however, do have the capacity to change everything (a bit of motivation helps too).

Because just as we need each other to survive, we need each other to create and innovate. And that is where the scientific community and the technological community come from. These large communities, divided into smaller and more specific ones, not only work together to achieve better results, but also feed off and build upon the conclusions of others to refine their own, thus creating a chain of unique knowledge that helps both within and beyond their communities.

LET’S DIVE INTO THE MAGIC

As you may have already guessed after reading these words, in issue number 14 of BizkaiaTech Magazine we will be focusing on community. Specifically, on several forms of community, all of them related to the scientific and technological community that contributes so much to the development of our territory and to the lives of so many people.

First, we will talk about the different types of community to provide some context for all the content that follows. And then we will dive right in.

We will explore the struggle of the LGBTIQ+ community in science and technology and their sense of belonging within that same community, with everything that this has entailed throughout history.

We will also delve into highly important and cutting-edge projects that are based on the premise of collaboration and aim to be better together, such as BIQAIN and GAIA.

As tradition, the Basque language, agriculture, and our identity are also fundamental pillars of our community, we will talk about projects such as Zientzia Kaiera, Garile, and Kantari App, which will tell us, from their own perspectives, about the importance of preserving, recovering, singing, and talking about our topics for our own audience.

We will also feature projects that make everyday life easier for different communities. First, we will talk about Digital Kindness (Amabilidad Digital), a program of the Government of Biscay that promotes the elimination of the digital divide for people who may have more difficulty adapting, and then we will move on to NaviLens, a project that helps people with disabilities orient themselves in cities and on public transport. We will also talk again about GovTech4All, which is coming back strong to offer European citizens their own technological sovereignty.

To finish, and since this is an issue dedicated to community, we will talk about our own community, Komunitatea, the one that, with pen or tablet in hand, has helped us get to where we are today. You will see what wonderful surprises are hidden behind the following pages.

As you can see, community radiates magic. It radiates family, friendship, cooperation… in short, it radiates love. In the following pages, we will somehow uncover this magic. And this is your formal invitation to step into it.