My experience has been that Americans are shy/loathe to inquire about each other too much. Probably dependent on geography and culture, as you have alluded to already. How does one get past this? My essay probably falls on the side of formal community building. July 4th is coming up soon--is that still an opportunity for informal community building, where you are?
Oh, boy, I have so much to say on this. Probably not going to say it all right now. :D
First and most importantly: culture building and community building are two very different things! They are orthogonal to one another. They can complement one other – multiplying one another like a length and a width to cover an area.
Community building is intensely *personal*. It's about building systems of relationships and relating. It's all about the 1-on-1.
Culture building is *conceptual* and *impersonal*. While it may be conducted in a 1-on-1 way, doing so scales poorly, and, crucially, it's not *about* the personal relationship. This is really, obvious and important in work on building the culture of solidarity.
Here, before I explain how so, it will help if I provide two concepts from sociology: Tonnies' "geselleschaft" vs "gemeineschaft".
Tonnies' idea in his book _Gesellschaft und Gemeinschaft_ is that we humans have in our heads two basic ways we do social organization.
One, which he terms gemeinschaft, usually translated as "community", is how families, clans, and small villages function: how people treat each other is a function of them knowing one another, and what each person thinks of the others. All relationships are personal.
The other, which he terms gesellschaft, is usually translated as "society", and refers to how we function in groups that exceed our capacity to regulate and manage through one-on-one relationships. Once a group of people gets much above the Dunbar number, functioning as a cohesive or at least peaceable group entails some other regulatory function other than personal affection and knowing everyone, personally. It starts involving impersonal systems for dealing with strangers, like rules, laws, and customs.
Community building is all about, well, gemeinschaft ("community").
But culture building – especially for supporting social justice work – HAS to be gesellschaft.
Take solidarity, and the idea of promoting a culture of solidarity.
A fundamental principle of solidarity is that it is categorical and universal. You don't just extend solidarity to people you like and know. That's not solidarity in the labor sense. Solidarity is being willing to go on strike with and for fellow workers you've never met, and may never have a personal relationship with. They may work at the other end of the factory, or at another worksite, or for another employer all together, or in another industry, or in another country.
Solidarity is the principle of standing with fellow working people whoever they are, just because they are fellow workers. Not because you know a like them, not because you judged them worthy on their merits.
Solidarity is PROFOUNDLY impersonal.
A culture of solidarity is one in which it is generally understood by people in that culture that working people sticking up for one another is a moral good that everyone shares. Not only do people share the sentiment that they, themselves, should stick up for their fellow workers whoever and wherever they are, they also know everyone else does too.
The way you build that culture is by spreading and promoting these ideas and beliefs. There's lots of ways to do that. Carefully thought out arguments presented as essays. Songs. Stories. Children's books. Casual comments about other people's behavior. Sermons preached from the pulpit. Academic papers and scientific research. Consciousness raising groups. Online flamewars. Murals. Interpretive dance.