About
Editorial Philosophy
An initiative of Peter Block and friends, Restore Commons aims to curate the ways of thinking and practice towards the common good. The move to the commons is well underway. We simply want to document it. Restore Commons is designed to be an online gathering place for stories and radical ideas strong enough to build the social capital and engaged community required to restore the common good.
The website features a variety of content including stories, articles, videos and podcasts that highlight inverted and radical thinking that is essential to an alternative economy, a connected neighborhood, and ways of dealing with the end of the so-called consumerist middle class. This is what is required to restore compassion, civility and interdependence that is disturbingly fragile in today’s world. The focus is on place-based, localized and grassroots initiatives that are alternatives to the tools of empire.
Editorial Agenda
The topics Restore Commons focuses on include:
- Exploring an alternative economy, an economy that is neighborly — a shift away from the consumer economy
- Voices from the faith community who are reinterpreting text in powerful and surprising ways
- Social Innovation and those leading the way in many sectors
- New approaches to journalism and community dialogue
- Creating connected neighborhoods and places of belonging
If you have feedback or an item you’d like to see featured on Restore Commons, contact our Editorial Team: restorecommons@gmail.com.
Leadership and the Common Good
Peter Block and Friends
If we want to restore our commitment to the common good, we need stories and ideas strong enough to build social capital and engage communities. Contained here are some principles, practices, and tools for this restorative transformation, which is well underway.
Introduction to the Commons:
- What it means to care for the common good.
- The context of scarcity, privatization, and the limits of development.
- Inverting our thinking about the domains of economics, church, journalism, architecture.
- Amplifying the people and practices that are changing the world. Make visible the untitled community builders, local people, under the radar, who are engaged in the transformational practices that are restoring our care for place, community and each other.
We don’t know what to name this collective landscape, but will call it a Curriculum for Restoration of the Commons for the moment. It will be the collective record of ordinary citizens producing the common good.