What Difference Does It Make? What Makes This Difference?

Abstract

Citizens in many places yearn for a role in shaping their own futures. Many demonstrate remarkable capacities to play that role. What is missing is a view of politics that includes, encourages, nourishes, and supports them. Many—if not most—politicians, funders, theorists, journalists are stuck in a paradigm that marginalizes them. In the face of exclusion or disregard, many feel helpless, but others are finding their voices and the tools to improve their lives. They are living the relational paradigm. They are engaging as whole human beings in whole bodies politic.