- Paperback: 264 pages
- Publisher: Berrett-Koehler (1 Sep 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1605092770
- ISBN-13: 978-1605092775
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.1 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 460,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Community: The Structure of Belonging
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Modern society is plagued by fragmentation. The various sectors of our communities businesses, schools, social service organizations, churches, government do not work together. They exist in their own worlds. As do so many individual citizens, who long for connection but end up marginalized, their gifts overlooked, their potential contributions lost. This disconnection and detachment makes it hard if not impossible to envision a common future and work towards it together.
We know what healthy communities look like there are many success stories out there, and they've been described in detail. What Block provides in this inspiring new book is an exploration of the exact way community can emerge from fragmentation: How is community built? How does the transformation occur? What fundamental shifts are involved? He explores a way of thinking about our places that creates an opening for authentic communities to exist and details what each of us can do to make that happen.
About the Author
Peter Block is a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops designed by Block to build the skills outlined in his books. He is the author of several best-selling books, including Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used ; Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest, The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work; and The Answer to How is Yes. He has received many 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 President’s Award; and Training Magazine HRD Hall of Fame
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Peter Block has done an extraordinary amount of first rate thinking and distillation in understanding how one can build effective community. It is practical: how to set up a room, what questions work, what questions are less effective. And, it is philosophical: what is the thinking behind those questions; what is the attitude and the behaviours you are seeking to call forth, and how people step into that reality when they are creating it; how/why community is iterative...
I feel changed for having read it. I feel truth has been revealed. And I feel the scale of the challenge of living into the possibility he creates. I highly, highly recommend this as an optimistic, lovely and necessary book. It feels hopeful, and invites you to feel hopeful and go forth and create community.
While the subtitle of the book is now "restoring the possible" which has its truth, the subtitle of mine is "the structure of belonging" which I found particularly useful. This is not about vague possibilities. This book is about meeting basic human needs (such as belonging), in a way that scales up to meet broader social needs.
And the question I now struggle with? Can we create community and the conditions for community that Peter describes, at a global scale, given the need to solve problems that are outcomes of a global system: climate change for example.
I feel changed for having read it. I feel truth has been revealed. And I feel the scale of the challenge of living into the possibility he creates. I highly, highly recommend this as an optimistic, lovely and necessary book. It feels hopeful, and invites you to feel hopeful and go forth and create community.
While the subtitle of the book is now "restoring the possible" which has its truth, the subtitle of mine is "the structure of belonging" which I found particularly useful. This is not about vague possibilities. This book is about meeting basic human needs (such as belonging), in a way that scales up to meet broader social needs.
And the question I now struggle with? Can we create community and the conditions for community that Peter describes, at a global scale, given the need to solve problems that are outcomes of a global system: climate change for example.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The sub-title of this book - The Structure of Belonging - sums up what community is supposed to be about. It offers gentle and very helpful ways to involve people in what is important to them, and highlights ways in which alienation can occur. The suggestions show how language can help to change consciousness, and this leads to changed thinking and behaviour. It is a very worthwhile book to be used by all interested in human groups, and how they can help and facilitate people.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed." -- Psalm 85:10
One of my favorite sayings is that "the best help is self-help." That's one of the major themes of this book.
I came to the book as someone who favors finding solutions that delight all those affected and as a fan of Peter Block's classic book, Flawless Consulting. I wasn't prepared for what I found in the first few chapters of Community: A dense summary of the views of other authors that feature their jargon and concepts. It was heavy going. I almost gave up before the book's message began to yield to Peter Block's views as exemplified by some examples from the Cincinnati area.
This book could have been told in a much more direct, simple, and easier-to-understand way. I found myself mentally translating the concepts back into ordinary English to grasp the major points.
As a result, the book comes across as almost like a simplified dissertation, not the kind of work that you may be expecting. One of the limits of tipping one's cap as an author to so many other writers is that you are limited in how much you can advance the argument into new territory without doing some new homework.
There's lots of good advice in the book so I do hope you will persevere. If our communities are to become stronger and more nurturing for all, we need to get past arguing about philosophies while nothing gets done. This book can be a helpful contribution to such progress if people read and apply its vision and structural recommendations.
Righteousness and peace have kissed." -- Psalm 85:10
One of my favorite sayings is that "the best help is self-help." That's one of the major themes of this book.
I came to the book as someone who favors finding solutions that delight all those affected and as a fan of Peter Block's classic book, Flawless Consulting. I wasn't prepared for what I found in the first few chapters of Community: A dense summary of the views of other authors that feature their jargon and concepts. It was heavy going. I almost gave up before the book's message began to yield to Peter Block's views as exemplified by some examples from the Cincinnati area.
This book could have been told in a much more direct, simple, and easier-to-understand way. I found myself mentally translating the concepts back into ordinary English to grasp the major points.
As a result, the book comes across as almost like a simplified dissertation, not the kind of work that you may be expecting. One of the limits of tipping one's cap as an author to so many other writers is that you are limited in how much you can advance the argument into new territory without doing some new homework.
There's lots of good advice in the book so I do hope you will persevere. If our communities are to become stronger and more nurturing for all, we need to get past arguing about philosophies while nothing gets done. This book can be a helpful contribution to such progress if people read and apply its vision and structural recommendations.
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