Communicating the Future. W. Lance Bennett

Acknowledgments

      This book offers a framework for developing more effective political communication, based on principles of transparency and reason, to advance the greatest good for the greatest number of people and other species over the longest run. At the core of the argument is a model of how social movements, political leaders and citizens can develop and spread better ideas to replace environmentally destructive and socially unjust political and economic regimes. I hope this framework will be of interest to scholars, students, activists, and citizens.

      Although the book is short in length, it reflects a long and wonderful journey in which I have been enlightened by many people. Many of the ideas here have been informed by exchanges with students and colleagues at the University of Washington, where, over the years, we created a number of learning communities to think about how better to align environment, economy, and democracy. An early project involved John de Graaf, Tim Jones, and dozens of students to explore the question: What’s the Economy For? This is also the title of a book and film by John, who is one of my favorite renaissance people. Shortly after that, along came Deric Gruen, community activist and organizer extraordinaire, who helped me develop the Rethinking Prosperity project with students, community leaders, and progressive funders. Among other things, we learned a lot about how community organizations and funders can greatly improve (or unwittingly undermine) the capacity and sustainability of their programs for change.

Deric and I later teamed up with Alan Borning, a collaborator on past projects and a computer scientist, who is concerned about how his field can contribute more to the public good. We founded the SEED project (solutions for environment, economy, and democracy), which is also the subtitle of this book. SEED drew an interdisciplinary group of scholars and activists from different nations to discuss many of the issues raised in the following pages. I am indebted to everyone who shared this part of the journey, in particular, Alan, Deric, Volker Wulf, Markus Rohde, Hanna Hallin, Vicky Wenzelman, and a stimulating group of alternative economists who taught me a great deal. Thanks to Volker for the fun gatherings in Siegen. Alan, Deric, and Hanna also provided helpful comments on the manuscript. Paralleling the SEED project was a student-led learning community called the Sustainability Action Network from which I learned a lot about the challenges of bridging campus and community organizations scattered over different environmental, economic, and political causes. Thanks to the energetic students and to Scott Davis for his patience in helping to organize them.

      Other colleagues at the University of Washington have contributed much to my thinking over the years, including: Matt Powers, Kirsten Foot, Mako Hill, Patricia Moy, Michael McCann, Chris Parker, Karen Litfin, Jamie Mayerfeld, and Jim Caporaso, among others. Adrienne Russell deserves a special acknowledgment for her perceptive and helpful reading of the manuscript. Special thanks to my department chairs John Wilkerson and Christine Harold, as well as the other administrators who have supported our work at the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, and given me the flexibility to visit other universities and research institutes in developing this book.

The work of so many