In 2019, Institute for Polarities of Democracy established the Desi Benet Social Change Fellow to honor the role that Desi played in the formation, promotion, and application of the Polarities of Democracy theory. The Fellowship is awarded to a woman PhD graduate who used the Polarities of Democracy as the theoretical framework for her
Dear Friends, I was hurting early on the morning of May 29, 2020. Over the past three days, I had seen the 10 second snippet of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis several times. It was disturbing. Then, late on the night of May 28, as protests mounted, I felt compelled to watch the
How has the oralonea virus helped our hindered our response to the corona virus? How has political and social polarization contributed to poor preparation and response to this crisis? (See oralonea virus) What ways of thinking and tools will support us into the future? How might things be different if there were more women
A special invitation just went out to key political and policy influencers from government, non-profit, academia, and think-tanks for a May 13th workshop entitled: From Polarized to Optimized. We only had space for 30 people -- so if you didn't get an invitation and are experiencing FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), Fear not! We’re exploring ways
by Cliff Kayser, CEO and Senior Fellow I got sidetracked from this post a month ago when one of our cats had to have emergency surgery to remove a hairball ($6k). I was thinking then about the budding topic of the day, which seems now to be the topic of our time -- the
Among the award-winning papers for 2015-2016 that were recently featured on the Joint Chiefs of Staff website is, “PARADOX & POLARITY: TOOLS FOR MANAGING COMPLEXITY” by Tod A. Roy of the Defense Intelligence Agency. JPME (Joint Professional Military Education) institutions are potentially valuable sources for lessons learned and of military academic research results. Mr.
I love and highly recommend Richard Rohr and his work at the Center for Action and Contemplation (https://cac.org/). He lives and talks polarities and is a frequent visitor to my gratitude journal. In a recent post, he talked about the polarity of Action AND Contemplation -- and about “and”!: "The most important word in
Contributions in the final hours of 2019 helped us maximize the 1-1, $2500.00 match -- thank you! Now that 2020 is official, I want to share that I’m feeling optimistic about the year and about democracy -- despite the volatility of the political environment. One reason is recent personal shift I had to make.
Dear IPD Friends and Colleagues, When I received confirmation of the Institute’s nonprofit status on April of 2017, I remember saying out loud... “This. Is. POWERFUL!” The “power” envisioned was to advance healthy, sustainable, and just organizations and communities in the marriage of two theories and practice tools. The theories: Polarities of Democracy (POD) developed
If the title of this Cliff’sNOTE intrigued you, you’ll love Samar Ahmed’s article entitled, “A Pole Dance for an Educational Reformer.” Samar is a friend, colleague and Professor of Medical Doctorate, MHPE, FF and Director of Ain Shams MENA FAIMER Regional institute. It’s a delightful read as well as a “how-to” engage key stakeholders