What
Read and apply "Community: The Structure of Belonging" with other readers starting in May 2019.
The table of contents of the book is:
Intro: The Fragmented Community and Its Transformation
Part One: The Fabric of Community
1. Insights into Transformation
2. Shifting the Context for Community
3. The Stuck Community
4. The Restorative Community
5. Taking Back Our Projections
6. The Inversion into Citizen
7. The Transforming Community
Part Two: The Alchemy of Belonging
8. Leadership Is Convening
9. The Small Group Is the Unit of Transformation
10. Questions Are More Transforming Than Answers
Summing Up: Six Conversations
11. Invitation
12. The Possibility, Ownership, Dissent, Commitment, and Gifts Conversations
13. Bringing Hospitality into the World
14. Designing Physical Space That Supports Community
15. The End of Unnecessary Suffering
In Summary: The Social Architecture of Building Community
This is the May selection in My Year of Reading 2019 which was listed by Céline Schillinger in her “How to grow, learn, and act for change in 2019?” list of events, resources etc.
The synopsis of the book from Amazon:
Modern society is plagued by fragmentation. The various sectors of our communities-businesses, schools, social service organisations, 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 marginalised, 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."My intent" he writes, "is provide structural ways to create the experience of belonging, not just in those places where people come to just be together socially, but especially in places where we least expect it.
This includes those places where people come together to get something done. These are our meetings, dialogues, conferences, planning processes - all those occasions where we gather to reflect on and decide the kind of future we want for ourselves." Citizens have the power to change the community story and bring a new context into being. Block shows us how we can overcome isolation and anxiety and create communities alive with energy and possibility. This book is written to support those who care for the well being of their communities. It is for anyone who wants to be part of an organisation, neighbourhood, city, or country that works for all, and who have the faith and the energy to create such a place.
“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 best selling books. The most widely known being Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used (1st edition 1980, 3rd edition 2011); Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest (1993) and The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work (1987).”
(taken from the author’s profile on his web site)
See the author talking about the book in this clip:
Why
“Community” is increasing in its prominence as a subject and a discipline – and a reality – as the most effective way of getting things done in organisations of all shapes and sizes in all sectors operating virtually and/or physically
Personally, I am interested in the subject of community as a leader and / or active member of a significant number of physical and virtual communities in a variety of my roles in life at home, play and work. I continue to look for books and other resources to study community as a subject more formally to see how I can become more effective and efficient in my community activities.
When collating My Year of Reading 2019, I asked Rachael Happe of The Community Roundtable to recommend a book on “community” and this is one of the two she named.
Here is a reading list we have - https://t.co/hMPsLJOOXw
— Rachel Happe (@rhappe) November 4, 2018
I think I would pick Community by Peter Block or Connected by Christakis and Fowler. Very different books though!
When
I and any others who join me will be reading the book starting in May 2019 or later whenever anyone joins us.
I have not split the chapters into weeks so readers can go at their own pace.
Where
This is a virtual book group that is running as a group in a community of learners on Workplace by Facebook.
To take part in this book club you will be registered on Workplace via an email address that you send to me.
It needs to be an address that has yet to be used to register for any other Workplace by Facebook community and ideally would be a personal email address not an organisational one in case your organisation already uses Workplace by Facebook or may use it in the future.
Note that Workplace by Facebook is not consumer Facebook! There are no ads and Facebook are not allowed to use any data held on Workplace for any purpose unrelated to the admin of your account.
It would be great if you would also use other platforms such as Twitter to publicise your reading of the book and what you are learning from it and your participation in the book group.
How
Read the book.
How you apply the book and how you take part in the book group is completely up to you. You can be as creative as you would like to be using the functionality available to you in Workplace.
I have got into a routine of making notes for each chapter of a book that I am reading for learning reasons and simultaneously documenting the things I want or need to apply and then posting those as a chapter-specific post in the relevant book group on Workplace.
Some readers when reading other books have posted video reviews and thoughts.
There is scope for doing audio or video calls to discuss the book as we read the book.
You could reply to the comments and notes of others. You could start a discussion and so on.
As I prepared to start reading this book, I was reminded of rhizomatic learning. See this intro on the subject:
I am bearing this in mind as I start and, if I get others reading along with me, we could explore this e.g. the book forms the core input for readers to then go on to apply the content in any way we see fit at any point through the book. It may be that a reader has a specific output product in mind (or comes to mind) that s/he produces with input from other readers and other members of the learning community in parallel with reading the book.
As an online learning junkie, I am open to anybody suggesting and /or doing anything connected with this book to learn and apply its contents.
All very informal and fun!
Who
The book is relevant to anyone who wants to explore the subject of “community” and apply the content of the book to their own situation.
The group would also be good for those who are out of the habit now of reading long-form content and are looking to get back into that routine and go deeper in their learning supported by others.
Reading the book in a Workplace by Facebook group is a good opportunity to do something real while “playing with” Workplace to see its capabilities.
I am the community manager and system admin for this Workplace at Facebook community which I do outside of my paid day job as a hobby. I am a Business Studies / Management Science graduate from the University of Stirling, Scotland, and an MBA postgraduate from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. I have been working for 35 years in IT. I am an online learning junkie – starting and completing 20+ MOOCs and facilitated 5 global virtual Working Out Loud circles. Outside of work, I am a family man with 3 teenage kids (one has just finished university, 1 is doing GCSEs and 1 is doing A Levels. I live in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK and work in Wetherby. I am part of the leadership team of an evangelical church set on a housing estate in the outskirts of Bradford.
I am happy to take any questions. To join me the easiest way of contacting me is via a Twitter DM
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