sculpture by Robert Indiana in New York. Photo from Wikimedia commons. Can love be a positive force for change in the public sphere as well as in our private lives? If not, Transformation is in trouble: openDemocracy’s new section has staked its future on demonstrating that radical changes are possible in politics and economics when approached in a spirit of human connection and solidarity.  At first glance, there’s an obvious problem with this thesis: can we really “love our enemies,” or even our friends and colleagues who we don’t know very well? Is there any scientific basis for believing that love can stretch beyond the boundaries of our ... posted on Oct 17 2013 (23,453 reads)

"Up" documentaries have followed 14 people from ages seven to 56—and in the process illustrated recent discoveries about the science of a meaningful life. The film critic Roger Ebert famously called the “Up” series “an inspired, even noble, use of the film medium.” It started, accidentally, in 1964, when the British TV program World in Action profiled 14 seven year olds with the aim of discovering how social class shaped their worldviews. There was no intention of going beyond that one episode, called Seven Up! Symon has faced the death of his mother, the births of his children, unemployment, divorce, and re-marriage (to Vienetta, at righ... posted on Nov 4 2013 (36,498 reads)

sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control.  Some of this was to be expected, because humans usually default to the known when confronted with the unknown.  Some of it was a surprise, because so many organizations had focused on innovation, quality, learning organizations, and human motivation.  How did they fail to learn that whenever you impose control on people and situations, you only succeed in turning people into non-creative, shut-down and cynical workers? The destructive impact of command and control ... posted on Oct 3 2013 (28,061 reads)

our ancient spiritual traditions, you know, gain a new kind of relevance, parts of them do in this ultramodern world, because, also, I mean, Pico Iyer went to a monastery. I mean, you know, there are religious spaces are some of those last places that are reserved for quiet, and it's been very countercultural but may be less so again. I don't know. Mr. Hempton: Mm-hmm. Well, recently it's been discovered that cave paintings in France, for example, that show the staggered images of bison and other animals of the hunt, that those paintings occur in acoustically unique environments within the cave. And it's believed that, by listening and listening to their echoes, t... posted on Oct 18 2013 (39,632 reads)

at a one-day Awakin retreat in Princeton NJ, we were asked to reflect on the notion of abundance and scarcity. And in particular, in which ways these notions manifested in our lives. The theme was carried throughout with various readings, shares and again during a writing exercise, when we were asked to think of a gift that had been given to us and how this gift had an impact on our lives. One personal reflection of mine, took me down memory lane to about seven years ago, to a time when I was experiencing some hardships that wanted to come in a sequence of one after the other. At the time, I had started a job in a city that was new to me, and as a fairly new n... posted on Oct 4 2013 (31,148 reads)

be a successful leader or entrepreneur, we need to become intimate not only with our strengths but also with our blind spots, those aspects of our personality that can derail us. John C. Maxwell defines a blind spot as "an area in the lives of people in which they continually do not see themselves or their situation realistically." All of us have blind spots. A Hay Group study shows that the senior leaders in an organization are more likely to overrate themselves and to develop blind spots that can hinder their effectiveness as leaders. Another study by Development Dimensions International Inc. found that 89 percent of front-line leaders have at least one blind spot in th... posted on Sep 18 2013 (38,384 reads)

for Seth Godin on the Art of Noticing, and Then Creating Krista Tippett, Host: We live in a world that is re-creating itself one life and one digital connection at a time. And Seth Godin is one of the most original and helpful voices I know on this landscape for which there are no maps. He was one of the early Internet entrepreneurs and remains a singular thought leader and innovator in what he describes as our post-industrial connection economy. Rather than merely tolerate change, he says, we are all called now to rise to it. We are invited and stretched in whatever we do to be artists — to create in ways that matter to other people. And Seth Godin even sees mark... posted on Sep 27 2013 (29,569 reads)

to make the right choices about food is the single most important key to environmental awareness — for ourselves, and especially for our children. Until we see how we feed ourselves as just as important as — and maybe more important than — all the other activities of mankind, there is going to be a huge hole in our consciousness. If we don't care about food, then the environment will always be something outside of ourselves. And yet the environment can be something that actually affects you in the most intimate — and literally visceral — way. It can be something that actually gets inside you and gets digested. How can most people submit so... posted on Sep 23 2013 (26,154 reads)

keep asking me what it feels like to have been assaulted in a hate crime. Honestly, I can't come up with a better response than simply "gratitude." I'm thankful for a few reasons. If they had attacked me any more violently, I may not be awake right now to tell my story. If they had attacked me even half an hour earlier, they would have harmed my wife and one-year-old son. And if they had attacked me anywhere else, I may not have had bystanders there to save me. I recall my assailants shouting slurs like "Osama" and "terrorist" before grabbing my beard. My most vivid and unexpected memory actually occurred after I was punched and thrown to th... posted on Oct 7 2013 (29,123 reads)

life cycle of a simple cotton T-shirt—worldwide, 4 billion are made, sold, and discarded each year—knits together a chain of seemingly intractable problems, from the elusive definition of sustainable agriculture to the greed and classism of fashion marketing. The story of a T-shirt not only gives us insight into the complexity of our relationship with even the simplest stuff; it also demonstrates why consumer activism—boycotting or avoiding products that don’t meet our personal standards for sustainability and fairness—will never be enough to bring about real and lasting change. Like a vast Venn diagram covering the entire planet, the environmental an... posted on Sep 28 2013 (31,898 reads)

today’s workplace, what goes around comes around faster, sinking takers and propelling givers to the top. In the old world of work, good guys finished last. “Takers” (those in organizations who put their own interests first) were able to climb to the top of hierarchies and achieve success on the shoulders of “givers” (those who prefer to contribute more than they receive). Throughout much of the 20th century, many organizations were made up of independent silos, where takers could exploit givers without suffering substantial consequences. But the nature of work has shifted dramatically. Today, more than half of U.S. and European companies o... posted on Oct 14 2013 (5,899 reads)

a desperately poor, dangerous part of town, Memphis Street Academy decided to ditch its metal detectors and focus on supporting students. Violence dropped by 90 percent.  A view of a street in the Kensington neighborhood of North Philadelphia in 1998. John Paul Jones Middle School, now Memphis Street Academy, draws students from a desperately poor and dangerous section of the city. (Dan Loh/AP) Last year when American Paradigm Schools took over Philadelphia's infamous, failing John Paul Jones Middle School, they did something a lot of people would find inconceivable. The school was known as "Jones Jail" for its reputation of violence and disorder, and because ... posted on Oct 11 2013 (22,196 reads)

late July Peter Buffett, son of billionaire Warren Buffet and co-chair of the NoVo Foundation, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times, arguing that too much of philanthropy is focused on making the donor feel good, and not on providing actual solutions to pressing social problems. This behavior, which he refers to as “philanthropic colonialism,” perpetuates inequality instead of eradicating it. The article sparked a sector wide debate with some praising Peter’s assessment that we pay too much attention to donors and not enough attention to new systems while others stating that he oversimplifies the problem without offering any solutions. (Read a roundup of responses on ... posted on Oct 8 2013 (25,274 reads)

Davis is president and CEO of PATH, an international nonprofit whose goal is to help communities break longstanding cycles of poor health. The cross-sectoral skills he has accumulated during his earlier work in other organizations, he says, are crucial when it comes to adapting innovations to the places that need them most. In an interview with Wharton management professor Michael Useem during the World Economic Forum in Davos, he talks about his approach to leadership, the importance of strategic partnerships, the effort to eradicate malaria in northern Africa and how to avoid the ‘I’m-going-to-give-back-later [to society]‘ trap. An edited transcript of the conver... posted on Oct 26 2013 (14,251 reads)

is full of reminders of what we lack. There is always someone who is more successful, more talented, more attractive, or more advanced in meeting milestones than we are. We encounter these people every day—in fact, they are often our friends, family members, and colleagues. Sometimes these encounters can leave us with a bitter taste in our mouths and a green glow in our eyes. Envy is a state of desiring something that someone else possesses. It’s a vicious emotion that can crush self-esteem, inspire efforts to undermine others’ successes, or even cause people to lash out violently. It also just feels horrible. So what can we do to disarm th... posted on Oct 13 2013 (28,906 reads)

year the Iowa Humanities Board offers a talk by a distinguished humanities scholar focusing on a theme important to the people of Iowa. Under the theme of the Exemplary Project, "A Sense of Place," the 1988 Iowa Humanities Lecture featured Wendell Berry. FOR MANY YEARS MY WALKS HAVE TAKEN ME down an old fencerow in a wooded hollow on what was once my grandfather's farm. A battered galvanized bucket is hanging on a fence post near the head of the hollow, and I never go by it without stopping to look inside. For what is going on in that bucket is the most momentous thing I know, the greatest miracle that I have ever heard of: it is making earth. The old bucket has hun... posted on Mar 4 2014 (23,714 reads)

world is pretty messed up. With all the violence, pollution and crazy things people do, it would be easy to turn into a grouchy old man without being either elderly or male. There's certainly no shortage of justification for disappointment and cynicism. But consider this: Negative attitudes are bad for you. And gratitude, it turns out, makes you happier and healthier. If you invest in a way of seeing the world that is mean and frustrated, you're going to get a world that is, well, more mean and frustrating. But if you can find any authentic reason to give thanks, anything that is going right with the world or your life, and put your attention there, then statistics say you'... posted on Oct 30 2013 (354,250 reads)

Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts A psychologist probes how altruism, Darwinism and neurobiology mean that we can succeed by not being cutthroat. Why do people do good things? Is kindness hard-wired into the brain, or does this tendency arise via experience? Or is goodness some combination of nature and nurture? Dacher Keltner, director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory, investigates these questions from multiple angles, and often generates results that are both surprising and challenging. In his new book, Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, Keltner weaves together scientific findings with personal narrative to uncover th... posted on Oct 19 2013 (27,408 reads)

– Forget everything you have been taught, because Matthieu Ricard is here to teach you a new way of interpreting the human being. A French Buddhist monk and a disciple of Dalai Lama, Matthieu Ricard is the author of Plaidoyer pour l’altruisme (Advocacy For Altruism), in bookstores since September 19. It is a non-religious book similar to an encyclopedia, and its content is very relevant for these times of economic crisis. There is evidence that we aren’t selfish human beings driven only by our own interests. Moreover, today’s society is not more violent than it was in the past. Yes, we can change the way we are and, therefore, cooperate more, not only ... posted on Jan 27 2014 (8,030 reads)

Italy—contacted me. She had this land with a prehistoric dwelling and the subterranean cave of the Byzantine monks. And in my architectural proposal, there is also a little paper with it that talks about adaptability; it talks about these monks leaving Constantinople, leaving the great dome. They almost swam to Southern Italy where they built these tiny little rock dwellings. And instead of the glorious dome, they had a little pudding basin like a carving in the wall where they painted images. So she had one of those. The buildings I proposed were all hexagonal, circular, and she had all of these circular buildings on her land. So she invited us to come and see if we could do someth... posted on Nov 23 2013 (15,757 reads)