Recently I’ve seen a swirl of information (mostly on the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation listserv) about participatory budgeting. Below, you’ll find a sampling of this info, in relatively raw form. I do not know enough to sort it …
Thomas Friedman suggests that the special strength of Egypt’s youth-led revolutionary movement has been “the fact that it represented every political strain, every segment and class in Egyptian society.” But then he turns around and says that dive…
Why would you want to become one? Here are four very enticing reasons: 1. You can get federal money and other favors for the people, companies, and interest groups who supported your campaign. Although you can do this with major legislation and ba…
The phrase “the commons” refers to domains and resources that belong to or affect the whole of a community. The “conversational commons” then embraces everything that supports or makes possible the enjoyable and productive conversations of a commu…
A large and growing body of knowledge exists about how to carry on powerful conversations — methodologies, facilitation know-how, dynamic understandings, and more. This knowledge informs professions ranging from therapy to diplomacy and conflict …
The Co-Intelligence Institute — which I founded in 1996 and work for now — is ending a two-month e-fundraising drive on January 31. We are falling far short of our very conservative goal of $15,000. We’ve raised a little over $5000 so far. The c…
Transformational change depends primarily on changing social systems. A social system — an economic or political system, for example — is how a society is organized. It is a pervasive and powerful pattern of social arrangements that shapes peopl…
Most people — at least in the US — think of wealth as a source of happiness. Rich people can, seemingly, get what they want, secure themselves from suffering, and improve the lives of others through their philanthropy. While this story true in m…
In the debate over tax cuts, it helps to look at the history of U.S. federal income taxes on high-income people. For the last 18 years individuals in the top income tax bracket (those making more than $250,000 to $379,150, depending on the year) h…
It is a new year, a new chance to reflect on our role in the world and how what’s going on in the world shapes our lives. I’ve been thinking about the popular saying — “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” We heard it a lot during the Obama c…