 |
 |
 |
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Social Change 2.0A Blueprint for Reinventing Our World“David Gershon is a daring social architect. In Social Change 2.0, David puts forth with clarity, brilliance, innovation, and passion a blueprint for sustainable societal transformation. This book is an outstanding addition to the world.” “Social Change 2.0 exhilarates! It makes us realize that what we thought was impossible can actually be achieved. I’ve seen firsthand the power of David’s work to change the lives of thousands of people. He may well be the number one expert on social change in our country.” “David’s book brings the wisdom, inspiration and tools to enable every one of us to become effective agents of change. Social Change 2.0 is a great book!” “Anyone who wants to effect change—whether to promote a global clean-tech revolution, or to organize a preschool program in their neighborhood—will find valuable truths here.” “I predict that this book will become the defining resource for those wishing to create sustainable, low carbon communities, and social change in general. It is a must-read for helping us traverse the challenging times ahead.” “David’s genius lies in knowing how to access the innate resources 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 plus generations.” “This book is a practical and inspiring roadmap to the 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 three decades empowering individuals and communities, as well as business and government leaders.” If “change” is the mantra of our moment in history, Social Change 2.0 may be poised to become its bible. Drawing on three decades on the leading edge of large-scale societal transformation, David Gershon—described by the United Nations as a “graceful revolutionary”—offers an original blueprint to bring about fundamental change in our world. According to Gershon, so many of our society’s operating assumptions have proven faulty that we must now completely re-envision them. And as the planet’s life support systems unravel and social systems deteriorate at accelerating rates, the world is in need of rapid transformative change. But the current social change tools at our disposal of government command and control, financial incentives, and citizen protest—Social Change 1.0—were designed for slow-moving, incremental change. He makes that case that not only must we reinvent our world, but also the process by which we achieve this reinvention. “If the current social change tools are not sufficient, what else do we have?” asks Gershon. “By taking a page from Thomas Jefferson’s playbook, might we be able to motivate people to change because of a dream that inspires their imagination, enlivens their sense of possibility, and lifts their spirit as a human being? Or to ask this question in a more tangible way, how might we empower people to voluntarily adopt new behaviors that help them, their communities, and their organizations operate at higher levels of social value so we can realize more of our potential as a human species?” According to systems theory, when the current solutions prove inadequate for the magnitude of change required, a system goes into stress and begins to break down. What is required to help the system evolve is a second-order change solution – or solution capable of transforming and reorganizing it to a higher level of performance. Social Change 2.0 represents such a solution for our social systems. It stands on the shoulders of Social Change 1.0 because it could not function optimally without the rule of law and a democratic form of government that allows for free expression. But it is designed to go beyond the constraints purposefully built into this more incremental approach to social change. Social Change 2.0 has a simple and some might say radical premise: That the natural starting point for changing our world for the better is us. That taking personal responsibility to make the needed changes within ourselves and our communities is the foundation for changing our institutions, not the other way around. That people are willing to make these changes if empowered by a personal vision and the means to bring it to fruition. That these changes can be accelerated and reinforced with the right laws and financial incentives, but the process begins with us. ••• David Gershon is the author of ten other books, including the best-selling Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It and Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5,000 Pounds, winner of the “Most Likely to Save the Planet” Independent Publisher Book Award. He is founder and president of Empowerment Institute and co-directs its school for transformative social change. His clients include cities, governmental agencies, non profits, large corporations and social entrepreneurs engaged in furthering social change. He has lectured at Harvard, MIT and Duke Universities and served as an advisor to the Clinton White House and United Nations. In 1986, he organized the United Nations-sponsored “First Earth Run” – a mythic passing of fire around the world symbolizing humanity’s quest for peace on earth which engaged the participation of tens of millions of people, the planet’s political leaders and, through the media, over a billion people at the height of the cold war. ••• Title: SOCIAL CHANGE 2.0: A Blueprint for Reinventing Our World Bookmark with:
|
