Social Change 2.0: A Blueprint for Reinventing Our World - Hardcover

David Gershon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0963032771 ISBN 13: 9780963032775

Publisher: High Point/Chelsea Green, 2009

Synopsis

If "change" is the mantra of our moment in history, Social Change 2.0 may be poised to become its bible. Drawing on his three decades in the trenches of large-scale societal transformation, David Gershon--founder and president of Empowerment Institute, and described by the United Nations as a "graceful revolutionary"--offers an original and comprehensive roadmap to bring about fundamental change in our world. His goal is to empower change agents to tackle pressing social problems or unmet social needs by providing them with strategies and tools to effect transformative change at any level of scale.From his initiation as architect of the United Nations-sponsored First Earth Run--a mythic passing of fire around the world symbolizing humanity's quest for peace on earth that drew tens of millions of participants, the planet's political leaders and, through the media, over a billion people at the height of the cold war--to his recent climate-change work helping citizens, cities, and entire states measurably reduce their carbon footprint (using his book Low Carbon Diet), Gershon offers readers strategies to evolve an effective new model for social change. These include:

• The first comprehensive social-change model with proven, practical strategies and tools to either launch a social change initiative or improve the efficacy of any existing change program.
• A "Practitioner's Guide" accompanying each chapter, to help readers apply this social change framework to their initiative.

The result is a riveting, enlightening, and inspiring book that will quickly find its way onto the desks--and into the hearts--of the tens of thousands of change agents engaged in the work of building a better world. Social Change 2.0 speaks to a wide range of practitioners across the spectrum of social change including social and environmental activists, social entrepreneurs, community organizers, and civic, government, and business leaders, as well as the vast number of baby boomers looking for a way to give back and the millennials just raring to go.

About this title

About the Author

David Gershon is the author of nine books, including bestseller Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It, and the award-winning book Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds. The founder and CEO of Empowerment Institute, he is one of the world's leading authorities on behavior change and large-scale transformation. At the height of the Cold War, he conceived and organized, in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund and ABC Television, one of the planet's first major global initiatives, the First Earth Run, which engaged millions of people in the passing of a symbolic torch of peace around the world. Since that time, he has addressed issues ranging from environmental behavior change to organizational talent development, from emergency preparedness to low-income neighborhood revitalization. He has lectured at Harvard, MIT, and Duke, and served as an advisor to the Clinton White House and the United Nations on behavior change and sustainability issues.

Review

"We all know we need to change our social systems but rarely realize the means for this change lies unrealized in us all. David's genius lies in knowing how to access the possibilities each one of us holds and his book is a guide to awakening these possibilities and helping us shift our society to be truly sustainable for the next seven generations."--Gregor Barnum, Director of Corporate Consciousness, Seventh Generation

"This book is a practical and inspiring roadmap to the more just, sustainable and peaceful future we all know is possible. I know of no one more experienced to create such a roadmap than David Gershon, who has spent the past 30 years empowering individuals and communities, as well as business and government leaders. I have looked forward to this book for some time to gain a deeper understanding of how David has initiated so much positive change and created so many innovative strategies to help people achieve their visions for a better world."--Hazel Henderson, author, Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy and Building A Win-Win World

"Powerful! Gershon writes from the front lines of social change with practical information flowing off the pages. Like a social change superhero, he demonstrates on every page the power of living with a no limitations philosophy, showing us how we, too, can be the architects of a brighter future for our world. This book will influence every project I take up in my life. I now know there is a pattern language for how to make social change happen."--Craig Hamilton, founder of IntegralEnlightenment.com, former editor of What Is Enlightenment? magazine.

"David Gershon is one of the most accomplished social innovators alive today. This timely book offers the rare gift of proven and transferable solutions that can be applied to a wide range of problems confronting humanity. I have seen and experienced firsthand the effectiveness of this social change model. If you wish to change the world, I cannot recommend this book too highly!"--Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World

Edition details

• Publisher: High Point/Chelsea Green
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0963032771
• ISBN 13: 9780963032775
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 406