Community: The Structure of BelongingMost of our communities are fragmented and at odds within themselves. Businesses, social services, education, and health care each live within their own worlds. The same is true of individual citizens, who long for connection but end up marginalized, their gifts overlooked, their potential contributions lost. What keeps this from changing is that we are trapped in an old and tired conversation about who we are. If this narrative does not shift, we will never truly create a common future and work toward it together. What Peter Block provides in this inspiring new book is an exploration of the exact way community can emerge from fragmentation. How is community built? How does the transformation occur? What fundamental shifts are involved? What can individuals and formal leaders do to create a place they want to inhabit? We know what healthy communities look like—there are many success stories out there. The challenge is how to create one in our own place. Block helps us see how we can change the existing context of community from one of deficiencies, interests, and entitlement to one of possibility, generosity, and gifts. Questions are more important than answers in this effort, which means leadership is not a matter of style or vision but is about getting the right people together in the right way: convening is a more critical skill than commanding. As he explores the nature of community and the dynamics of transformation, Block outlines six kinds of conversation that will create communal accountability and commitment and describes how we can design physical spaces and structures that will themselves foster a sense of belonging. In Community, Peter Block explores a way of thinking about our places that creates an opening for authentic communities to exist and details what each of us can do to make that happen. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION The Fragmented Community and Its Transformation | |
The Fabric of Community | |
Insights into Transformation | |
Shifting the Context for Community | |
The Stuck Community | |
The Restorative Community | |
Taking Back Our Projections | |
The Small Group Is the Unit of Transformation | |
Questions Are More Transforming Than Answers | |
Midterm Review | |
Invitation | |
The Possibility Ownership Dissent Commitment | |
Bringing Hospitality into the World | |
Designing Physical Space That Supports | |
The End of Unnecessary Suffering | |
What It Means to Be a Citizen | |
The Transforming Community | |
The Alchemy of Belonging | |
Leadership Is Convening | |
MORE Book at a Glance | |
Role Models and Resources | |
Acknowledgments | |
About the Author | |
Other editions - View all
Community: The Structure of Belonging (16pt Large Print Edition) Peter Block No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
accountability and commitment action alternative future AmericaSpeaks answers authentic Barry Lopez become belief belonging bring building community capacity Center choice choose Christopher Alexander Cincinnati citizens city manager communal transformation community building convening conversation create an alternative culture declaration define difference dissent distinction Elementz engagement example experience focus gathering generosity gifts give Grameen Bank Hip Hop human ideas important individual insight inversion invitation Jane Jacobs labeling Landmark Education large group leaders leadership learning lives margin means meeting mindset Nature of Order neighborhood occurs organizations Over-the-Rhine ownership people’s person possibility problem solving programs promise questions restorative community restorative justice retributive Robert Putnam shift the context small group social capital social fabric space story strategy structure talk thinking urban voice well-being Werner Werner Erhard whole willingness words World Café youth