Reimagined Community

Who's going to maintain the technology? Who's going to evolve it? Who gets paid or who has to pay for it? These questions led me down an exploration of what we can broadly call “governance.” How do people make decisions and take actions together? How do they build social fabric in order to make those decisions? How do they trust each other enough... See more

When you think about the way that community has transformed from really embedded familial networks or village networks or religious networks, to thinner communities of interest, or thinner communities of identity, or even digitally connected communities with no in-person engagement, it begs the question: “What is the ground on which you're standing... See more

If democracy is this challenge of people coming together to figure out the kind of shared lives they want to forge, then the behaviors that they use to negotiate difference are going to flow from the commitments they have to each other.

To me, the vision is a civic life that invites all people to have the experience of collective life that we've been talking about. This civic life would involve a set of civic institutions that are accessible to all different kinds of people and offer them the opportunity to participate in the transformative work of engaging with their neighbors.... See more

institutions that Theda Skocpol studies were built on the idea that they matter because they equip us with the habits and skills that we need in order to forge a common life with people who are different from u

thick, robust communities that civil society researchers tout as the ideal — where you have several entry points, and several avenues for deeper participation and leadership

Unlock what we already have. Schools that open gyms after hours, libraries that double as resilience hubs during heat waves, and churches that host community meals prove you don’t always need new buildings. Sometimes the fix is as simple as sharing keys and extending hours.

Given the overwhelming research that social isolation is a destructive force (loneliness, polarization, unhappiness), shouldn't one of the core responsibilities of a local news outlet be "things to do" (including with other people)?At one point I thought that this function had been so thoroughly taken by specialty firms (e.g. Time Out) or by... See more