Andrews - Living Room Revolution A Handbook for Conversation, Community and the Common Good

Praise for Living Room Revolution

Cecile Andrews gets to the heart of what we really need in America a restoration of conversation about what matters in our lives. In this book, she shows how we can do it effectively, using examples from folk schools to living room dialogues. Im particularly taken by her ideas about the Pursuit of Happiness and how we can use happiness circles to analyze and improve well-being. Both thought-provoking and extremely practical, Cecile Andrews has a lively style, peppered with a ready wit, that makes her writing readable, brisk, and fun! Ive been a fan of her work for years, and this book is no exception. It can help improve your quality of life!

John de Graaf, co-author of Affluenza and Whats the Economy For, Anyway?

Dont be deceived by Cecile Andrews niceness and reasonable tone. The Living Room Revolution is real revolution, showing how to communicate and why its important for social change. Unlike most revolutions, though, this is one in which everyone wins. Ceciles approach has made a big difference in the Transition groups Ive been in. We come away from group conversations energized rather than frustrated, and eager to do more.

Bart Anderson, Co-editor of the websites Energy Bulletin and Resilience.org and Co-founder of Transition Palo Alto

If the past several decades have taught us anything, its that lavish wealth, invincible technology and unlimited information dont make us very happy. As Cecile Andrews shows in Living Room Revolution, happiness is centered on close friends, strong communities and convivial connections. This book is a handy, enjoyable primer on how to enrich our lives at the same time as making a better world.

Jay Walljasper, author of All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons and The Great Neighborhood Book

What a pleasure to read this book, I simply devoured it! Cecile Andrews has brought us a manifesto for cultural transformation through the renewal of our own satisfaction. She breaks it down for us; by using the tools we already have at hand, that we were born to use, we can help ourselves and each other reclaim and reinvigorate our communities. With her wealth of live experience in numerous movements, and insightful, broad focus, Ms. Andrews joyfully invites us to discover a robust and real personal expansion with each other as we remake our society. Great work, I am so inspired, thank you Cecile!

Mark Lakeman, Co-Founder, The City Repair Project

The future starts with a conversation. How theyre conducted, their purpose, and how we engage in them determines what kind of future well create. Do we have lopsided, purposeless conversations? Or do we have real dialog about matters of substance where everyone is heard? Theres no way society will change positively unless the answer to the latter is yes. Living Room Revolution shows the way.

Neal Gorenflo, publisher of Shareable

Reading Cecile Andrews books has often been compared to having a conversation with her. Living Room Revolution is literally about conversation how it can fill the yearning for a better world and spark the transformation we all long for. Small groups. Study circles. Stop n chats. House parties. Movie nights. Online sharing. Bring people together, and you never know what kind of fuse youll ignite for change. Living Room Revolution gives you that excitement of waking up on a sunny morning, saying to yourself, Yes! There really is hope and today Im going to make a difference!

Wanda Urbanska, co-author of Less is More and author of The Heart of Simple Living

Modest in style, Cecile Andrews has taken on the most fundamental question that plagues movements for social and cultural transformation: why are they not sustained? Her answer is both simple and profound only that which sustains the spirit will endure. Experiential rather than theoretical, she brings a lifetime of activism to her reflection, and offers a central pivot for those who would build movements, great and small: convivial conversation genuine, life affirming engagement that allows us to find joy in the other fellow. To have such conversation is a way of going through life, and Andrews has lessons to teach for those who would master the art.

Jerome M. Segal, author of Graceful Simplicity: The Philosophy and Politics of the Alternative American Dream

Living Room
Revolution

A HANDBOOK FOR
Conversation, Community and
the Common Good

CECILE ANDREWS

Copyright 2013 by Cecile Andrews.
All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.
Background image: iStock (tulcarion); Sofa image: iStock (jallfree);
Doodle illustrations: iStock (katyakatya) First printing March 2013.
eISBN: 978-1-55092-532-6

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Living Room Revolution should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.

To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:
New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada (250) 247-9737

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action. The interior pages of our bound books are printed on Forest Stewardship Council-registered acid-free paper that is 100% post-consumer recycled (100% old growth forest-free), processed chlorine free, and printed with vegetable-based, low-VOC inks, with covers produced using FSC-registered stock. New Society also works to reduce its carbon footprint, and purchases carbon offsets based on an annual audit to ensure a carbon neutral footprint. For further information, or to browse our full list of books and purchase securely, visit our website at: www.newsociety.com

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Andrews, Cecile

Living room revolution : a handbook for conversation, community and the common good / Cecile Andrews. Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-86571-733-6

1. Conversation--Social aspects--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Social interaction--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. Social change--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4. Community life--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 5. Happiness--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 6. Joy--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.

Dedication

To my little dog, Maggie, 1996-2012.

A cknowledgments always begin by saying there are countless numbers of people to thank. This is particularly true this time. I want to thank all of the people over the years who have gathered in my living room for good conversation. They all inspired me.

In particular, though, I want to thank my neighbors in Seattle with our Phinney Neighborhood Center and our Sustainable Greenwood Phinney neighborhood group. I think what were doing can inspire the whole country. The same goes for Transition Palo Alto and our Community, Calling and Conversation circle. Bart Anderson, one of the members, kept insisting on the importance of my message about conversation and community! And Barbara Weinstein used the phrase