Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: The Fragmented Community and Its Transformation -- Part 1. The Fabric of Community. Insights into Transformation -- Shifting the Context for Community -- The Stuck Community -- The Restorative Community -- Taking Back Our Projections -- What It Means to Be a Citizen -- The Transforming Community -- Part 2. The Alchemy of Belonging. Leadership Is Convening -- The Small Group Is the Unit of Transformation -- Questions Are More Transforming Than Answers -- Midterm Review -- Invitation -- The Possibility, Ownership, Dissent, Commitment, and Gifts Conversations -- Bringing Hospitality into the World -- Designing Physical Space That Supports Community -- The End of Unnecessary Suffering -- More. Book at a Glance -- Role Models and Resources.

"'Most of our communities are fragmented and at odds within themselves. Businesses, social services, education, and health care each live within their own worlds. The same is true of individual citizens, who long for connection but end up marginalized, their gifts overlooked, their potential contributions lost. What keeps this from changing is that we are trapped in an old and tired conversation about who we are. If this narrative does not shift, we will never truly create a common future and work toward it together.' 'What Peter Block provides in this new book is an exploration of the exact way community can emerge from fragmentation. How is community built? How does the transformation occur? What fundamental shifts are involved? What can individuals and formal leaders do to create a place they want to inhabit? We know what healthy communities look like-there are many success stories out there. The challenge is how to create one in our own place'"--