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. |
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Community: The Structure of Belonging (16pt Large Print Edition) Peter Block No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
achievement aliveness and wholeness alternative future authentic community become bridging social capital choose Christopher Alexander cities and neighborhoods citizens collective transformation communal transformation community building community occur community well-being context conversation create a future create an alternative culture David Bornstein deficiencies Emergent Design Emergent strategies Erhard experience fabric of community Focus on gifts focusing fragmentation gated communities Grameen Bank grows ideas important individual transformation isolation John McKnight John’s Large Group Methodologies large group methods leaders leadership margin munity nature of community neighbors ness ology operate organizations past person places possibility problem profound prosperous quality of aliveness question relatedness Robert Putnam sense of belonging shapes one's shift in thinking sibility small group small step Social fabric social networks sterling silver stories structure of belonging summary talk thing tion towns understanding unfolding Watch what emerges Werner Erhard’s willingness World Café