Sarah Wong

seven evidence-based strategies that can guide community leaders, stakeholders, and individuals to foster greater connection across lines of difference in their communities. Strategies include: • Provide more opportunities for connection • Increase the perception that connecting across difference is the “community norm” • Foster feelings of local... See more

Even the way people give and receive arguments is coded by cultural norms; the default expectation of “rational” deliberation has been challenged by various scholars, who argue that those who regularly engage that way are often whiter, more educated, and more economically well off. As such, deliberative processes still often proceed along lines of... See more

“What unites everybody around Pittsburgh is the sports. Sports unites a lot of people from all different areas around the city that meet up at that sports stadium.” — Charlie, a 64-year-old politically unaffiliated white woman from Pittsburgh

Permissioning based on precedents (like case law)

• Every space starts with basic template of rules which are iterated thereafter


• Everything is allowed (within legal limits) until something happens to change the rules


• Templates need to be updated regularly (time limited templates)

Collective intelligence is created when people work together, often with the help of technology, to mobilise a wider range of information, ideas and insights to address a social challenge.

the most powerful ‘leverage points for change’ within in a system are non-material (changing the rules and goals of the system, changing mindsets, or changing the entire paradigm)

we need to create space for the abundance of these imaginative possibilities. We don’t just need to “join,” we need to imagine different ways of being when we show up. We don’t just need to “start clubs,” we need to imagine new approaches to organizing and gathering