Do you feel you belong where you live? According to a recent study, 60% of Americans strongly agree to feeling belonging in America, but only 35% strongly agree to feeling belonging in their communities. Let me repeat that: Two out of three of us don’t feel like we belong where we live. That’s shocking, but perhaps not that surprising. This…
How do we create social cohesion but still maintain the strength of our diversity? How do we break down the barriers of tribal partisan identity that are dividing our country? What does mass depolarization look like? There are smart people from many disciplines grappling with these questions. Over the past year I’ve been scouring their writings and talks, looking for…
“I am large, I contain multitudes.” said Walt Whitman in his poem, “Song of Myself.” Was Whitman ahead of his time in understanding the extraordinary fact that non-human cells compose more than half the body? More likely, he was giving voice to the complexity of being human and the fluidity of our sense of self. Because within each of us…
Last month I had published an Op-Ed piece in the Seattle Times, “Where’s the Love (and $$) for Seattle’s Neighborhoods,” which focused on the tragic decline of Seattle’s Neighborhood Matching Fund. My Op-Ed instigated a series of conversations with City Council members, aids to City Council members, City department staff, neighborhood community organizers, and more. Here are some insights from…
Once upon a time people designed and made their own places. Cities, towns, and villages were organic manifestations of local culture, knowledge, and materials. Whether the warrens of European streets, the villages of indigenous peoples or the public squares of colonial American towns, such people-built places are now celebrated for their authenticity and charm. Now decisions about the built environment…
They say that the Inuit have 50 words to describe snow. I am longing for a similar richness in how we talk about “community,” a word that is thrown around so loosely that it is in danger of losing its meaning. For a more expansive view of community, we can look to the language surrounding the concept of “social capital”…
Social trust is the dark matter of our Democracy. Social trust is what allows us to get along and work towards a “greater good” with people who are different from us. It helps turn our differences and diversity into strengths. Without social trust, we become tribal and disconnected from one another, concerned only with our self-interests or the interests of…