Joy to the (Civic) World
Plus, what we lose when optimizing community, the adulthood crisis, and loneliness as the tip of the iceberg
New Readers: Welcome to our Curated List for November. Each month, we publish one of these lists, which features some of the thought-provoking reads, listens, research, and practical work we’ve encountered in the past month. We’re always keeping an eye out for good content, so don’t hesitate to send things our way.
The last month has been chock full of takes related to the election. If you’re like us, you’ve probably seen enough of these takes and you aren’t looking for more. But amidst the noise of election season, there were actually several good nuggets of wisdom related to the themes of Connective Tissue. So like little squirrels collecting acorns for the winter, we’ve gathered some of our favorite reads in this month’s Curated List:
From Elise Granata: What do we lose when community becomes yet another thing that is commodified and optimized?
From Aaron Horvath: How does philanthropy’s emphasis on a standardized, quantifiable form of “impact” weaken social trust and civic life?
From Making Caring Common: Why do individuals blame societal issues for their loneliness but then see individuals as responsible for solving it?
From Sam and Oren Cass: How has centering four-year college as the anchor of the adult transition years contributed to the sorting of Americans’ social lives by class?
Beyond this month’s reads, we are excited to announce a special gift for the holiday season: our first-ever live event. And what better themes to explore this holiday season than fun, joy, and community?
So, in collaboration with our friends at
, we’re hosting an event we’re calling: “Joy to the (Civic) World: The Role of Fun & Joy in Civic Life.” This interactive panel will take place on Tuesday, December 17th at 2PM ET and will feature Richard Young (CivicLex), Ash Hanson (Department of Public Transformation), Nathalia Benitez-Perez (Boston Office of Civic Organizing), and Evan Weissman (Warm Cookies of the Revolution). We share more details on the event and each of these groups in “The Work” section for this month’s newsletter.We hope you find joy in this week’s reads and consider joining us for the event next month.
Your squirrels,
Sam + Eric
The Reads (& Listens)
- “What We Lose When Optimizing Community” by (Oct. 2024)
“As organizers, let it be friction-ful or not cute. Let it be functional and clear but maybe ugly. As participants, let us widen our zone of comfort with organizations or groups who have ancient facebook pages or websites where you aren’t sure where you even put your e-mail address. Maybe we trust them more because they’ve managed to keep going in real life…without optimizing the internet.”
In an article that spoke deeply to me (see past writing on the “Privatization of Community” and “Why startups will not ‘solve’ loneliness”), Granata asks the question: what do we lose when community becomes yet another thing that is commodified and optimized? The answer: a lot. Communities are more likely to become “pay-to-play” and create higher financial barriers to entry. More grassroots efforts may feel less trustworthy because they don’t have the “right” brand or aesthetic. We may even miss out on the “good friction” — actually relying on other people to figure things out — that comes with the imperfect community group. There’s way more to this piece and I can’t recommend it enough. Please consider giving it a read.
The Hedgehog Review - “Philanthropy by the Numbers” by Aaron Horvath (Nov. 2024)
“The familiar adage that ‘what gets measured gets managed’ rings true. But when measurement consumes our civic imagination, everything that can’t be measured—the relationships and collective experiences that uphold democracy—is liable to wither.”
In this provocative piece for The Hedgehog Review, Stanford sociologist Aaron Horvath expands on many of the challenges raised in our interview with him back in February: Can a standardized, quantitative definition of “impact” truly be assessed across disciplines and geographies? How does philanthropy’s emphasis on measurable, quantifiable “impact” shape and distort civic life? Can this emphasis on measurement be both a consequence of and a contributor to declining social trust? And what is sacrificed in our personal, interpersonal, and collective lives when civic life becomes a game of consumeristic “comparison shopping for deals on progress?” If you liked our interview with Aaron, you’ll really enjoy this piece.
American Compass Podcast - “The Adulthood Crisis” with Sam Pressler and Oren Cass (Oct. 2024)
“We’ve taken the college-for-all model and we’ve made the rest of civic life college-for-all … Community for adults has, in many ways, become pay-to-play. When you become a transactional member of a workout class or an improv group, you’re mirroring a social experience of college. But people without degrees oftentimes cannot access these experiences …”
I (Sam) joined
for a conversation about how four-year colleges have become the “great sorter” of Americans’ social lives and how the adult transition years distinctly shape our relationships throughout life. We discuss how this dynamic evolved, why it matters both for Americans with degrees and without degrees, and what we can do about it, particularly from a policy perspective. Toward the end of the conversation, Oren challenges me to not only think about how non-college pathways can better foster connection, but also how four-year colleges can be de-emphasized as the anchor point of the adult transition.→ Listen to the conversation here.
The Research
Making Caring Common- “Loneliness in America: Just the Tip of the Iceberg?” by Milena Batanova, Richard Weissbourd, and Joseph McIntyre (Oct. 2024)
It’s been a while since we’ve highlighted the work of Harvard’s Making Caring Common Project (MCCP). In this recent report, the MCCP team summarizes a recent survey of 1,500+ U.S. adults on their individual social-emotional states and their attitudes toward the loneliness epidemic. A few of the findings were particularly thought-provoking:
More than one in five (21 percent) of adults report feeling seriously lonely, and 19 percent of adults don’t feel part of the country. Lonely individuals report feeling fundamentally disconnected (from others and/or the world at large) at very high rates.
The subjective experience of loneliness is intertwined with other mental health issues. Discerning the direction of causality between loneliness and negative mental health outcomes is challenging, and it’s likely that causality flows in both directions for different individuals.
Respondents blame societal issues for their loneliness but see individuals as responsible for solving it. The vast majority of respondents implicate societal-level challenges for their loneliness — things like technology, lack of concentrated family time, and overworking — but a similar proportion of respondents believe that the solution to widespread loneliness lies in the hands of individuals.
The results of this study seem to point in one direction: the medicalization of a subjective feeling of loneliness clusters with the medicalization of many of our other mental health issues (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress). Loneliness as a mental health issue isn’t a paradox: if you’re taking a survey and you’re feeling bad, you’re likely going to report feeling bad along every measure you’re presented. And much like these other medicalized mental health issues, the causes are societal, but the solutions become mapped onto a landscape of individualized self-help and individualized therapy. Herein lies a core challenge with the loneliness frame: it individualizes a set of social problems that are, in fact, deeply structural in their causes.
The Work
The emerging movement of place-based civic leaders who are bringing fun and joy to civic life.
Participating in civic life doesn't need to feel like eating your spinach. Yes, it's important. But it can be both important and fun and joyful. In small towns and big cities across the country, leaders are redefining what it means to participate in civic life, injecting fun, joy, and celebration into their work and strengthening the social fabric of their communities in the process.
In recognition of this emergent movement — and this holiday season of joy — we’re teaming up with our friends at
to host an interactive panel celebrating and highlighting practical strategies to make civic life fun and joyful. The panel will be moderated by Richard Young, Founder of CivicLex, and will feature three place-based facilitators of civic good times:Ash Hanson, Creative Executive Officer of the Department of Public Transformation, which works to develop creative strategies for increased community connection and civic engagement in rural places.
Nathalia Benitez-Perez, Director of Boston's Office of Civic Organizing, which works to expand opportunities for Bostonians to be active citizens in their communities through initiatives like block parties and “spooky streets”.
Evan Weissman, Founder of Warm Cookies of the Revolution, which gets regular people engaged in crucial civic issues by creating innovative and fun arts and cultural programs (see some of their fun, weird programs here).
We invite you to join us for this practical, interactive, and (dare we say) fun event on Tuesday, December 17th at 2PM ET. You can click the button below to learn more about the event and register to attend.