Holding the Center
in the confluence of crises
War, politicians getting arrested for asking questions, politicians getting murdered — you think it’s bad, but then the next day Israel bombs Iran, Iran bombs back, and you think WOW it’s worse than yesterday. Then someone asks President Trump what he’s going to do and he says, “How could you ask me that?” Each of the crises we are confronting is throwing off crazy events, and the confluence of crises is creating synergies of madness that are starting to defy definition and crumple our minds.
How are we to “hold the center” of sanity in all this?
That’s the question Bob Fullilove, Molly Rose Kaufman and I and our students will tackle in our four-week course, Holding the Center at the Confluence of Crises, at the free people’s University of Orange summer school.
We plan to talk about deploying a “root-shock-informed” approach. We all worked together in the summer of 2001 to do the original research on urban renewal in 5 American cities which provided the data for my book Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It. We used what we had learned to inform our development of ways to address the trauma of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, which followed on the heels of our summer research. We have had 24 years to watch upheaval and consider what recovery looks in cities as different as Enschede, The Netherlands, and New Orleans, LA, USA. This work has provided us with a wealth of observations that help us face and manage these tumultuous times.
It’s always a wonderful experience to teach with Bob and Molly — they have such breadth of experience and are so articulate and clear that it always deepens my understanding. And they’re a lot of fun so I have a very good time learning from them and with them. I hope you’ll join us!
