Community – The Structure of Belonging

Community
240 Pages
ISBN 978-1523095568

The expanded and revised edition of Community tackles the hysteric rise of isolation and fear in a digitally interconnected world.

As a response to the increasing violence in our culture, the widening ideological divides, and the growing gap in economic well-being, there is greater awareness that a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. But even as we acknowledge the need to build community, the dominant on-the-ground practices about how to engage people, civically and organizationally, remain essentially unchanged. We still believe community is built with better messaging, more persuasion, and social events for people to get to know each other better. All of which is naïve.

In this new edition, Block draws on a decade of putting these ideas into practice to emphasize what has worked and extract those thoughts that were nice but had no durability. He explores how technology, instead of bringing us together, has driven us into more isolation. New examples show that community building can be a more powerful way to address social problems than more traditional policies and programs. And encouragingly, Block insists this is really simple, once we decide it is essential. He offers a way of thinking that creates an opening for authentic communities to exist and details what each of us can do to make that happen.

Peter Block

About Peter Block (Cincinnati, Ohio Author)

Peter Block

Peter Block is an author, consultant and citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio. His work is about empowerment, stewardship, chosen accountability and the reconciliation of community.

Peter is the author of several bestselling books. His most popular works include:

“Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used” “Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest” “The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work”, which embodies Peter Block’s management philosophy. He has also authored, “Flawless Consulting Fieldbook & Companion: A Guide to Understanding Your Expertise"; “The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters" (Berrett-Koehler, 2002) which won the 2002 “Independent Book Publisher Book Award for Business Breakthrough Book of the Year” and “Freedom and Accountability at Work: Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real World” which was co-authored with consultant and philosopher Peter Koestenbaum.

Peter Block’s consulting books facilitate ways to create workplaces and communities that work for all. They offer an alternative to the patriarchal beliefs that dominate our culture. Bringing change into the world through consent and connectivity rather than through mandate and force is the ultimate goal of Peter Block consulting efforts.

Flawless Consulting (3rd edition, 2011) is about having impact when you have no direct control and has become a classic for anyone in a consulting role. The Empowered Manager focuses on creating an organization of our own choosing. Peter Block’s "Stewardship" is about the right use of power and designing organizations for service. "The Answer to How Is Yes" is about giving priority to what matters over what simply works.

He received a Masters Degree in Industrial Administration from Yale University in 1963 and performed his undergraduate work at the University of Kansas.

Peter serves on the Boards of Directors of Elementz, an urban arts center; and LivePerson, a provider of online engagement solutions. He is on the Advisory Board for the Festival in the Workplace Institute, Bahamas. He is the first Distinguished Consultant-in-Residence at Xavier University. With other volunteers in Cincinnati, Peter began A Small Group, whose work is to create a new community narrative and to bring his work on civic engagement into being.

He has received national awards for outstanding contributions in the field of training and development, including the American Society for Training and Development Award for Distinguished Contributions; the Association for Quality and Participation Presidents Award; and Training Magazine HRD Hall of Fame.

Peter’s office is in Mystic, Connecticut.

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