Fundamentals of Advancing Public Action

Course Description

Summary

This country is facing challenges of unprecedented scale and urgency in the areas of health, education, inequalities in the distribution of wealth, environmental sustainability; the capacity of our governing structures to address the public interest; mounting threats to fundamental democratic processes, a dangerous predilection for the uses of force. We examine each of these topics individually while recognizing their interdependence. We also address capacities fundamental to this work regardless of the particular topic. They include: working with data; reading; seeing; listening; connecting; understanding improvisation; managing issues of scale. Throughout the course the focus is on the challenge of effective action in the world in ways that go beyond the ad hoc and address causes rather than symptoms. In addition to engaging materials that illuminate the current state of things we engage texts that allow us to explore the role of the past in charting the future and the critical matter of values.