Community Engagement As Antidote to Our Dangerously Divided Times

Session 1D | Wednesday | 2:45 – 4:00 PM (PT)

Sweeping epidemics of polarization and social fragmentation have dramatically changed the social context for community engagement. How can we evolve our practices to be more effective in this new social climate? More importantly, how can we help course correct this troubling social trajectory? Part lecture, part-participatory research, part workshop, this interaction session will explore how community engagement can foster social cohesion by unleashing its potential to cultivate place-based connection, tolerance, and belonging across people of different groups. We will take an interdisciplinary traverse through the fertile fields of social psychology to unearth the secret sauce for bridging our group differences and strengthening communities. You will leave with a research-based framework for evolving your engagement practices and practical tools matched to our dangerously divided times.

Eric Higbee, PLA

Convene / The Answer is Community / Univ. of Washington

Eric Higbee is a landscape architect, community organizer, writer, researcher, and teacher residing at the intersection of placemaking and community building. His writings and research on community engagement, society, and place-based communities are published regularly on his blog, The Answer is Community. Eric practices as a principal landscape architect at Convene and teaches as an Affiliate Faculty member at the University of Washington Department of Landscape Architecture.

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