In a complex and interconnected world it is hard to be an activist against things. One of the easiest ways that your opponents can neutralize your opposition to things like oil and slavery is to say “we” you depend on oil and slaves, so that makes you a hypocrite.” So this is tricky – solving global problems of labour, energy, economics and justice are the very definition of complex problems. There is no simple solution, there is a frustrating degree of progress and even large shifts in public consciousness (think land mines or climate change) are met with initial enthusiasm …
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I think there is probably nothing new under the sun. Engagement work has been tried, refined and improved all over the world in the last couple of decades that I wonder if there is anything new we can learn? It does seem to fall into “authentic engagement” and “engagement washing” – if I can coin a couple of phrases. But I haven’t seen radically new thinking or practice for a while. What we are getting instead is some terrific collections of tools, handbooks and harvests of processes. This .pdf of a Handbook for Civic Engagement prepared for a community process …
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You’ll see on the sidebar a bunch of different offerings for this year. Seems my Art of Hosting teaching practice is making a couple of shifts. First, there are lots of places around the world where you can go and do a basic introductory Art of Hosting. The schedule is getting pretty crowded actually if you are willing to travel! You can find the list of offerings here at the Art of Hosting website. This represents something of the shift in the world of this practice. Over the past ten years the Art of Hosting community has grown widely and …