[Springboard] Springboard studies A way to accelerate development of common memory? summer reading??

Sun Jun 14 03:19:31 EDT 2009

Ellen and I would like to be in on this conference call.  We are picking up
the book at the library today.
Dave Rebstock

2009/6/13 James Wiegel <jfwiegel at yahoo.com>

>  Over the past year, an assortment of the larger "us" have been reading
> books / studying them together.  Limits of Power, Hot, Flat and Crowded,
> Community, The Outliers to name a few.  We have both used events (early
> mornings at the ToP Trainers meetings) and "free conference" phone calls to
> get together.
> One of the strategic intents coming out of the recent ICA Community
> strategic thinking weekend is "Accelerating development of common memory".
>  One simple way to do this might be to (a) share our reading lists and
> recommendations with one another and (b) choose some books to study together
> in some simple way.  This will enable some common language and images about
> what is going on that can give us more in common when we talk, plan, work
> together.
>
> The Big Sort is a recommendation (see below).  I am sure there are others.
>  If there are enough people interested, and with the book, we can start a
> conference call study group this Tuesday evening at 5:00 pm Pacific time.
>  Want to participate?  Email me.  I'll get it started.  1-269-320-8400.
>  access code 881373#
>
> What other suggestions do you have?
>
>
> THE BOOK
>
> *THE BIG SORT* (Houghton Mifflin, May 7, 2008) is the landmark story of
> how America came to be a country of swelling cultural division, economic
> separation, and political polarization.
>
> Going far beyond the simplistic red state/blue state divide, journalist *Bill
> Bishop* (in collaboration with sociologist and statistician Robert
> Cushing) marshals original data and incisive reporting to show how Americans
> have sorted themselves geographically, economically, and politically into
> like-minded communities over the last three decades.
>
> Homogeneity may be a perk of the unprecedented choice our society
> offers—but it also breeds economic inequality, cultural misunderstanding,
> political extremism, and legislative gridlock. This is the story of our
> times, and its reality poses a profound threat to democracy, but no one
> before now has seemed to notice, let alone been able to describe, its causes
> and consequences.
>
> The nation we live in—our culture, economy, neighborhoods, and churches—has
> been sculpted by the Big Sort over the past thirty years:
>
> •People with college degrees were relatively evenly spread across the
> nation's cities in 1970. Thirty years later, college graduates had
> congregated in particular cities, a phenomenon that decimated the economies
> in some places and caused other regions to flourish.
>
> • The generation of ministers who built sprawling mega-churches in the new
> suburbs learned to attract their stadium-sized congregations through the
> "homogenous unit principle." The new churches were designed for
> cookie-cutter parishioners, what one church-growth proponent described as
> "people like us."
>
> • In 1976, only about a quarter of America's voters lived in a county a
> presidential candidate won by a landslide margin. By 2004, it was nearly
> half.
>
> • Businesses learned to target their marketing to like-minded "image
> tribes," a technique used by Republicans in the 2004 campaign.
>
> Living in politically like-minded groups has had its consequences. People
> living in homogenous communities grow both more extreme and more certain in
> their beliefs. Locally, therefore, governments backed by large majorities
> are tackling every conceivable issue. Nationally, however, Congress has lost
> most of its moderate members and is mired in conflict.
>
> Like* *Robert Putnam's *Bowling Alone*, Richard Florida's *The Rise of the
> Creative Class*, and Thomas Frank's *What's the Matter with Kansas?**, THE
> BIG SORT *explores the connection between cultural evolution, economic
> change, and the power of place. *THE BIG SORT*, however, is the first
> account that systematically ties cultural and economic evolution to the
> changing political landscape of America.
> And when you have finished reading, the country—its conflicts and
> turmoil—makes a new kind of sense
>
> Jim Wiegel
>
> If anyone tells you something strange about the world, something you had
> never heard before, do not laugh but listen attentively; make him repeat it,
> make him explain it; no doubt there is something there worth taking hold of.
> -- Georges Duhamel.
>
> 401 North Beverly Way
> Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401
> +1 623-936-8671
> +1 623-363-3277
> jfwiegel at yahoo.com
> www.partnersinparticipation.com
>
> --- On *Thu, 6/11/09, James Wiegel <jfwiegel at yahoo.com>* wrote:
>
>
> From: James Wiegel <jfwiegel at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Springboard] Wonder where we are in the Springboard studies?
> To: "Springboard Dialogue" <springboard at wedgeblade.net>
> Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 4:42 PM
>
> I just got back from the library with The Big Sort
>
> Jim Wiegel
>
> If anyone tells you something strange about the world, something you had
> never heard before, do not laugh but listen attentively; make him repeat it,
> make him explain it; no doubt there is something there worth taking hold of.
> -- Georges Duhamel.
>
> 401 North Beverly Way
> Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401
> +1 623-936-8671
> +1 623-363-3277
> jfwiegel at yahoo.com
> www.partnersinparticipation.com
>
> --- On *Thu, 6/11/09, Richard West <rwestica at ms69.hinet.net>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Richard West <rwestica at ms69.hinet.net>
> Subject: [Springboard] Wonder where we are in the Springboard studies?
> To: springboard at wedgeblade.net
> Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 3:41 PM
>
> Sorry I missed the last one, but am interested in continuing.  Is there a
> new decision?
>
> Dick
> -- Richard West        ICA Taiwan
> 3F, # 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road
> Taipei, Taiwan 111
> T) 8862-2871-3150
> F) 8862-2871-2870
> email) rwestica at ms69.hinet.net
> skype)  rwestica
>
> _______________________________________________
> Springboard mailing list
> Springboard at wedgeblade.net
> http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/springboard_wedgeblade.net
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Springboard mailing list
> Springboard at wedgeblade.net
> http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/springboard_wedgeblade.net
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/springboard_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20090614/9b556b63/attachment.html>