This article originally appeared on the listserv Beyond Intractability on June 12, 2023. Political polarization seems to be everywhere – in Washington DC, at statehouses around the nation, and in school board and other local government meetings. It has come to appear so entrenched as to be a permanent part of the national landscape, inevitable …
Category Archives: Blog
Civity & the “Tough Issues”
Our joint civity journey – close to 20 years now – started with a one-on-one conversation … with each other. We talked about our concerns about important “tough issues” such as the environment, health care, education, racism, and poverty. We talked about our combined experience in local communities where we saw the effects of these …
Civity Collaborates with Climate Change Practitioners
Over the last few months Civity has had the privilege of facilitating two civity workshops with climate-change-related practitioners. Working with the members of the Midwest Climate Collaborative in St. Louis, Missouri, and with Bluegrass Greensource in Lexington, Kentucky, the common thread was the awareness that building relationships across difference is the foundation for change. Much of …
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Join Us April 23 for a Civity Workshop on Connecting Across Difference
Join Civity on Sunday, April 23, for our special online workshop, as part of the National Week of Conversation! The workshop takes place from 12pm – 2pm PT / 3pm – 5pm ET on Zoom. Register Here! We look forward to seeing you and building relational muscle together!
Democracy’s Civity Foundation
I live in an old house – more than 100 years old. The other day I was down in my basement with a plumber looking at replacing some cast iron pipes that have reached the end of their time. It’s never fun to be faced with significant home repairs, but at the same time I …
Acts of Civity Amidst Tragedy Lead to Enduring Connections
Civity is more than connecting and belonging; it is a cultural change. Recently, I experienced civity even in the midst of tragedy. In December 2022, my city was on fire. At 5 p.m., I could hear fire trucks and planes dropping water from the sky. My heart clenched to see how the fire advanced mercilessly …
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Column: Civity — the Gift that Keeps Giving
This column originally appeared in the Sheridan Press. Did everyone survive Thanksgiving a few pounds heavier but with familial relationships mostly intact? ‘Tis the season for ugly political discussions over the big bird. There’s nothing quite like mixing alcohol, simmering resentments, buttery carbohydrates, and long-term misunderstandings to make for unfortunate dinner conversations featuring raised voices …
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Head to Heart
Some years ago, a common bumper sticker offered this advice: “Think Globally. Act Locally.” Never has this advice been more salient. Climate change is global, yet its effects are experienced locally. Some communities are hit by harder and more frequent storms, or drought, or wildfire. Some communities are seeing their fossil-fuel-based economies falter as energy …
Stanford Study Shows Civity Helps Strengthen Democracy
(This post was updated on 04/22/23) A major new study out of Stanford University proves that Civity’s relational approach to connecting people across differences can strengthen democracy and reduce polarization by building social trust and fostering connection across difference. The Strengthening Democracy Challenge (SDC) – the largest social science experiment of its kind – measured …
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The ‘Conversation Before the Conversation’
We live in a world of urgent and potentially existential challenges. There is a crisis-level lack of housing. Democracy is under siege. The effects of climate change are upon us. At Civity, we often describe the work we do as helping people have “the conversation before the conversation.” The conversation before the conversation about how …
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