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Franz Kafka Revisited:The Green Castle: Ultimate Bureaucracies in Higher Education

August John HoffmanMetropolitan State University

May 2014

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Abstract

Recent empirical research has identified the positive impact of

“green” stewardship practices and psychological benefits in

planting fruit trees and urban forests within communities

impacted through natural or man-made disasters (Tidball, Krasny,

& Svendsen, 2010). Communities and institutions of higher

education providing residents with opportunities for developing

community gardens and civic ecology projects have shown

significantly stronger levels of “connectedness” “eco-identity”

to those communities (Hoffman, 2014). The current study explores

the psychological and psychosocial benefits of community

gardening, urban forestry and “green” civic ecology practices at

the Newtown Victory Garden located in Newtown, CT. Eight

students and two faculty travelled to Newtown, CT. on Saturday,

October 5, 2013 to help build a memorial fruit tree orchard

shortly after the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

that occurred on December 14, 2013. Participants were interviewed

regarding their experiences in working with community residents

of Newtown, CT. The study also examines the problems of

bureaucracy and alienation in higher education and how these

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issues have impacted access to educational resources that are

designed to improve community service and green ecological

practices. Study findings and suggestions for future research are

offered.

Key words: Eco-identity; community service activities; “green” ecological practices; urban forestry

Franz Kafka Revisited:The Green Castle: Ultimate Bureaucracies in Higher Education

“Just what exactly does a greenhouse have to do with

psychology and higher education?” is a common question that I am

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asked as a professor of psychology at a Midwest university.

Historically plants, fruit trees and vegetables have been

effective ways to help bring people from all walks of life

together in communities because they represent things that

sustain life and can bring beauty to even the most squalid

environments. Plants and vegetables not only sustain physical

forms of life but have also increasingly been shown to provide

numerous positive psychological, environmental and ecological

benefits (Krasny& Tidball, 2009b). “Green” environments and

ecologically-related sustainable projects (i.e., developing

“Farmer’s Markets” in urban environments and community garden

plots) are becoming increasingly popular within a broad range of

educational hierarchies (K-12 through graduate level) as

researchers have discovered the numerous psychosocial and

community-related benefits (Austin & Kaplan, 2003; Kuo, Sullivan,

& Coley, 1998).

When ethnically diverse groups of individuals share a common

goal, such as in building a community garden or fruit tree

orchard, a form of interdependency and shared contact develops

gradually among participants that help them to discover their

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common links with each other as well as debunk negative

stereotypes (Pettigrew, 1997). Community psychologists are also

discovering how the implementation and development of community

gardens can help empower community residents and develop a

stronger sense of “connectedness” to the residents living in the

neighborhood, as well as provide an “eco-identity” to those who

participate in a variety of ecologically-related community

projects (Hoffman, 2014).

The Healing Power of Plants and Trees

Plants, trees and community gardens not only provide us with

an individual sense of reward by transforming how we feel about

ourselves, they can also provide another powerful gift in

relation to psychological healing and empowerment (Agani, Landuau

& Agani, 2010). Increasingly, empirical research has shown us the

numerous powerful psychological and interpersonal benefits of

community gardening and urban forestry to those communities

recovering from disasters, both natural and human-related

(Tidball, Kraszny, Svendsen, Campbell, & Helphand, 2010). For

example, shortly after the 9/11 tragedy residents in New York

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City quickly established a site now known as “The Living

Memorials Project” and a similar urban forest and community

garden was established after the tragic human loss following 2005

Hurricane Katrina. Dating back at least to the WWII era of

“Victory Gardens”, participation in a variety of community garden

plots as well developing fruit tree orchards have provided

individuals with practical and highly effective methods of coping

with disaster and improving psychological resiliency (Russell,

1944).

Community and individual gardening and urban forestry have

represented psychological empowerment during times of crisis and

tragedy primarily because “green” ecological practices primarily

represent regrowth and connecting with spiritual values during

post-disaster recovery. In the wake of the tragedy in both

Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, community residents quickly

established urban forests and gardens as a way of honoring the

memories of victims who whose lives were senselessly lost that

day. The development of “green” living memorials helps us as a

community to not only remembers lives that have been lost, but

many of the community gardens and fruit tree orchards continue to

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provide healthy

foods to nourish

both heart and

souls of future

community

residents.

The Virtues of Apple

Trees in Newtown,

Connecticut

More recently, several of my students and I helped establish

a fruit tree memorial shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary

School tragedy that had occurred on a Friday afternoon in 2012. I

remember first reading about this very tragic event and began to

wonder what we, as a small group of students and concerned

faculty could do to facilitate the healing process of that

community. It was then that I decided to try and organize a group

of students and faculty and travel to Newtown, Connecticut. Here

we would offer our trees and our hearts and help the community

plant a small memorial to the victims and survivors of the

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Newtown, CT community. On Saturday, October 5 of 2013 several

students and faculty travelled to a nearby location of Sandy

Hook, CT and helped organize a community fruit tree orchard. The

numerous residents, community stakeholders and students worked

for several hours in a park location that was named the Newtown

Victory Garden. On the morning of the tree planting ceremony I

was amazed at the solidarity and commitment of the community

members and school personnel at Sandy Hook Elementary School

displayed. We worked collaboratively in what was both a happy and

solemn day as over 30 different varieties of apple trees were

planted that day (all of them were University of Minnesota

cultivars, such as Honeycrisps®, Honeygolds®, SnowSweet® and

Haralson® varieties). Ironically, very little was said while the

trees were being planted, but one community member came up to a

group of students and hugged them, exclaiming: “Sandy Hook will

always remember you!” Residents were then provided with over 30

different fruit trees to take to their own homes and plant in

their yards as a remembrance to the Sandy Hook Elementary School

victims of December 14, 2012.

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Shortly after the tree planting ceremony participants were

administered a short survey as a means of recording their

experiences and interactions during the day. While several

measurement tools currently exist to help measure the

psychological impact of community service work activities, the

Community Service Attitudes Scale (CSAS) was used because of the

strong internal consistency (Shiarella, McCarthy & Tucker, 2010).

The four primary domains of community service work activity

included: Awareness of the needs of the others and the importance

of community service work activities (α = .83); Sense of personal

responsibility and connectedness to the community (α = .92);

Understanding disadvantaged and diverse groups (α = .84) and

Likelihood of participating in future community service work

activities (α = .93).

Additionally, participants were presented with five open-

ended questions to further elaborate about their personal

experiences during the tree planting ceremony. These questions

included: “Briefly describe your previous work in volunteer

services to the community. What are your thoughts and feelings in

completing the Newtown, CT tree planting project?;

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1. How do you think the Newtown, CT community responded to

you and the other student volunteers while completing the

tree planting project?;

2. Briefly describe what kinds of changes you expect to make

in participating in this community project;

3. Do you feel that by helping the community plant trees in

the Newtown Victory Garden you will have changed the

lives of some of these community members? How so and in

what way? And

4. On a scale from “1” (least important” to “10” (most

important, how would your rank the volunteer work that

you have done in the Newtown, CT community?_____.

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1

The

post-

interview tree planting survey yielded very interesting results

1 Newtown Victory Garden (October 2013)

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addressing the importance of community support and post-disaster

relief activities. In post-interviews of the tree planting

project at the Newtown Victory Garden, participants commented

that the tree planting ceremony was “an incredible experience to

help so many people who we feel so close to.” Additionally,

several participants indicated that planting the trees served as

a unique way to “connect and identify with other community

members as well as the students from Minnesota.” One community

resident reported that the trees were unique in the sense that

they “represented a life-connecting and spiritual connection with

those who were impacted by the tragedy.”

A Pearson Correlation Coefficient (see Appendix B) is a

statistical test used to determine the strength of the

relationship among two or more variables used within a variety of

different experimental procedures. The Pearson Correlation was

used to determine the strength of the relationship of the four

domain variables (perceptions of the importance of community

service work, likelihood continuing community service work in the

future, feeling “connected to one’s community, and better

understanding of ethnically diverse groups), and a significant

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correlation was determined between the domains of the perception

of the importance of community service work activities and

likelihood of participating in future community service work

activities (r = .741). Additionally, participants ranked their

perceptions of their volunteer work at the Newtown Victory Garden

on a Lichert scale (“1” = least important and “10” = most

important at 9.87 (SD = .353). These findings are significant in

the sense that communities that provide residents with

opportunities to engage and participate in community service work

projects (i.e., community gardens) are helping people to discover

how personally rewarding they are and as a result are more likely

to participate in future community service activities.

Community gardens and urban forests (i.e., citrus trees,

apple trees and a variety of deciduous trees) all can help

transform blighted communities into “social magnets” where people

want to participate and help develop a variety of different types

of gardening programs. Community gardens not only provide

healthier foods and vegetables to community residents, the can

also improve the aesthetic appearance of neighborhoods.

Community gardens not only provide psychological empowerment to

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those who participate in them, but they also have been shown to

provide an important need in healthy food distribution to

impoverished and low-income families. According to recent reports

addressing the problem of providing healthy foods to low-income

families, approximately 30% of the users of food assistance

programs in the Twin Cities region are children and 25% of the

users of food assistance programs are adults with disabilities

(Star Tribune, October 29, 2013). Clearly, there is an important

need in developing community food plots and horticultural

programs that are specifically designed to help marginalized

groups in our society today.

Urban forests and community gardens can help feed

impoverished groups who are food insecure; they can also help

galvanize and connect a community as well as promote cooperative

and prosocial behaviors. For the last several years I have worked

with students and other faculty in the development and production

of a community garden and fruit tree orchard where all foods are

donated to low income families. My colleagues and I have noted

numerous positive effects of community service gardening

activities among our students, including increased connectedness

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with their community, a greater likelihood to be involved in

future community activities, and reduced ethnocentric ideology

among ethnically diverse populations. When community members and

students work collaboratively together in a community gardening

activity, their perceptions of each other typically improve as a

variety of negative stereotypes (i.e., ethnic, gender, and

religious), are debunked. Communities that provide opportunities

for residents to participate in a variety of environmentally

“green” and sustainable projects are actually helping the

community in the development of psychological resilience and

improved mental health (Tidball, Krasny, & Svendsen, 2010).

Refurbishing a Greenhouse: The “New Green Castle” of Higher Education

Hopefully this short summary has described the usefulness

and viability of the many benefits of community gardening and

urban forestry projects within the community and higher

education. The purpose of this article, however, is not so much

about the psychological and community benefits of community

gardening and urban forestry as it is about our efforts in

refurbishing a greenhouse facility that remains abandoned and

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off-limits to faculty and students. Given the numerous

psychological, educational and community-related benefits of

ecologically-related activities, it seems (to me anyways) logical

that a university would seize the opportunity to refurbish a

structure that represents growth, educational inspiration and

psychological empowerment. For the last five years I have been

lobbying to help refurbish, activate and utilize a unique

greenhouse that has remained abandoned at our university. All of

my efforts to date have unfortunately proven unsuccessful. Like a

grey distant castle in a lonely neighborhood the greenhouse sits

untouched and neglected but not forgotten.

In Franz Kafka’s novel The Castle, the main character is “K”,

a land surveyor who has been erroneously summoned to The Castle and

spends his entire life fighting bureaucracy and gaining access to

an institution that is supposed to be “flawless.” When K attempts

to contact any official who can provide him with information

about The Castle, his calls go unanswered. In an uncanny

similarity, my requests for more information about the greenhouse

go unanswered, and I feel that I too am fighting a goal that at

times seems impossible to achieve due to seemingly endless

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bureaucracy. A key figure in The Castle with whom K frequently

attempts to communicate with is “Klamm” (German translation for

“locked” or “to clamp”). Klamm purportedly can provide K with

valuable information and access to The Castle, but unfortunately K

is never presented with the opportunity to meet with Klamm, as he

is missing “paperwork” that justifies his entry to The Castle. The

more effort that K expends in trying to be rational and logical

in his efforts to gain access to The Castle, unfortunately the

further mired he becomes within the intricate bureaucratic

system. Like K, I have been informed that university protocol

must be adhered to and proper paperwork filed before any

meaningful discussions can develop about entry to the greenhouse.

To date, these discussions and meetings continue with no end in

sight. Why the greenhouse remains abandoned and ignored is

unclear to me. Like the community members and representatives in

The Castle, the community members of our institution have been

rejected in their attempts to help refurbish the greenhouse,

despite its apparent use as a valuable academic and educational

resource to the community.

History of the Greenhouse

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The greenhouse on our campus was built in 1998 and closed in

2008 due to financial cutbacks and recession. During its brief

operation it served as a valuable educational tool to the

community by providing educational classes and workshops to

children about the importance of environmental and sustainable

practices in in agriculture. Plants, shrubs and trees were

propagated with the purpose of developing resistance to invasive

species of insects that are common to the upper Midwest region.

Children learned about responsible ecological and environmental

practices as well as the importance of recycling resources in our

community.

Today, however, all of this has changed. The greenhouse sits

forlorn and adjacent to the university with weeds growing around

the perimeter of the structure and overgrown plants and shrubs

surround the once expansive windows. Like the villagers in The

Castle, people within the university and community have come to

accept the fate of the greenhouse as remaining “off limits” to

them, and sadly even fewer people here today know the history

why this building even exists. Questions about the history,

purpose and future of the greenhouse remain unanswered, nor can

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any administrator justify why it cannot be incorporated into

academic programs. The issue certainly is not financial, as we

(psychology department) have gained a major local nursery as a

corporate sponsor who has agreed to donate all materials needed

to develop and maintain the nursery.

My efforts in gaining support for the refurbishment of the

greenhouse have included numerous proposals justifying why a

greenhouse is needed on our campus, dozens of meetings with

administrators, contacting the media, reaching out to community

partners, and even making several trips to the State Capital to

talk to some of our State Representatives (I have been called a

“crackpot”, “nutty professor” and even (jokingly – I think) a

“stalker” by at least one of those State Representatives). While

most of the state representatives are kind enough to listen to me

as I describe passionately the value of a greenhouse in higher

education, I still detect the subtle glances at their wristwatch

indicating that my time (and meeting) is now over.

The original design and purpose of the greenhouse was to

propagate a variety of plants that were resilient to insects and

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a variety of plants that are native to the upper Midwest region.

More importantly, however, the greenhouse served an important

role in reaching out to the community by providing local primary

and secondary schools with field trips, educational seminars

about ecology, insects and fragile environments. Many of the

foods produced outside the greenhouse (i.e., Honeycrisp® apples

and a variety of plum trees) have also been donated to the

community. Unfortunately, when the greenhouse closed and was

disbanded in 2008, all of the community and educationally-related

benefits also became defunct. To date, this facility remains

unused and abandoned despite its ability to serve so many

educational needs and resources on campus.

My purposes in writing this expose is to bring attention to

a matter that can significantly improve the quality of learning

and help meet the needs of our students and community members.

The development and refurbishment of the greenhouse will help

establish a stronger community when faced with conflict and

disaster, and will also help students of higher education in

psychology place theory into community action.

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I am told that our mission, scope and purpose as a

university is to provide accessible, high-quality education to

the citizens and communities of the surrounding metropolitan

area. This is why it remains puzzling to me (and other faculty)

why the greenhouse remains closed. A greenhouse can teach

students important topics addressing sustainability and recycling

within the environment. A greenhouse can help foster and develop

those plants that have been shown to help promote psychological

healing and growth to those communities recovering from tragedy.

More importantly, however, is the fact that a greenhouse serves

as an institution of life that promotes both physical well-being

and psychological health through a variety of disciplines.

Despite these obstacles I remain optimistic that our greenhouse

will in fact be refurbished and utilized by our students and

community members – but then again “K” never did successfully

gain access to The Castle.

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References

Agani, F. L., Lanudau, J., & Agani, N. (2010). Community-

building, during and after ties of

trauma: The application of the LINC model of community

resilience in Kosovo. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80(1),

143-149.

Austin, M. E. & Kaplan, R. (2003). Identity and the natural environment:

The psychological

significance of nature, in S. Clayton and S. Opotow, eds,

Cambridge, MA, pp. 205-225.

Hoffman, A. J. (2014). Build a fruit tree orchard and they will

come: Creating an eco-identity via

community gardening activities. Community Development Journal.

doi10.1093/cdj/bsu013.

Krasny, M. E. & Tidball, K. G. (2009b). Community gardens as

contexts for science,

stewardship, and civic action learning. Cities and the

Environment, 2(1), 1-18.

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Kuo, F. E., Sullivan, W. C, & Coley, R. L. (1998). Fertile

grounds for community: Inner-city

neighborhoods common spaces. American Journal of Community

Psychology, 26, 823-851.

Pettigrew, T. F. (1997). Generalized intergroup contact effects

on prejudice. Personality and

Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 173-185.

Russell, M. A. (1944). Highland Park’s School Victory Garden. The

American Biology Teacher,

6), 171-174.

Shiarella, A. H., McCarthy, A. M., & tucker, M. L. (2000). The

development and construct

validity scores of the Community Service Attitudes Scale.

Educational and Psychological Measurement, 60, 286-300.

Tidball, K. G., Krasny, M. E., & Svendsen, E. (2010).

Stewardship, learning, and memory in

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disaster resilience. Environmental Education Research, 16, 591-

609.

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Appendix

Community Service QuestionnairePlease answer the following questions where a score of:

1 = Absolutely Untrue

2 = Somewhat Untrue

3 - Undecided

4 = Somewhat True

5 - Absolutely True

1. I feel that participating in volunteer or community work is an

important activity that all people should be involved in _____;

2. When I participate in volunteer work and community service work,

I feel better as a person _____;

3. When I participate in volunteer and community service work, I

feel as though I am contributing to make society better for all

people _____;

4. I feel more “connected” to my school and community when I

participate in community service work ____;

5. After participating in community service work I feel more like I

“belong” to my campus and community _____

6. When I participate in community service work, I feel as though I

can accomplish more and learn more academically_____;

7. When I participate in volunteer or community service work, I feel

as though I am more capable of accomplishing other types of goals

in my life _____;

8. I feel as though my potential for school work and academics has

improved significantly while I have been participating in

community service activities _____;

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9. Since participating in this project, I feel as though I am more

likely to participate in future community service activities

_____;

10. When I participate in volunteer or community service work, I

like working outside and enjoy how the activity makes my body

feel physically _____;

11. I feel that I have a better understanding of members from

different ethnic groups since I have been working in my community

service activity _____;

12. When working as a volunteer in the community, I feel that my

sense of pride for the community and my school has also increased

_____;

13. I feel that community service work has helped me to better

understand other people and to understand different cultures

_____;

14. I feel more comfortable in communicating and working with

members from different ethnic groups since my community service

activity ______;

15. Since my community service work I feel like I have more in

common (similarities) with members from different ethnic groups

than dissimilarities _____ .

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Appendix B

Pearson Correlation

CorrelationsCSW as

ImportantActivities

FeelConnected toCommunity

Betterunderstandin

g ofdifferentethnicgroups

Participate in

future CSWActivities

CSW as Important Activities

Pearson Correlation

1 .501* .501* .741**

Sig. (2-tailed) .048 .048 .001N 16 16 16 16

Feel Connected to Community

Pearson Correlation

.501* 1 .826** .569*

Sig. (2-tailed) .048 .000 .021N 16 16 16 16

Better understanding of different ethnic groups

Pearson Correlation

.501* .826** 1 .569*

Sig. (2-tailed) .048 .000 .021N 16 16 16 16

Participate in future CSW Activities

Pearson Correlation

.741** .569* .569* 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .001 .021 .021N 16 16 16 16

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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