Community Innovation Book: Chapter 2 (Disruption of Community Life)

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Visit San Francisco, New York, Worchester, or nearly any community in America, talk to its leaders, look at their newspapers and data—as we have—and you will be struck by the presence of disruption wherever you go. In small and mid-size cities; gigantic metropolitan regions and rural towns—the largest, most complex places and the smallest, simplest ones—five forces of disruption are imposing new realities: economic globalization, environmental damage, cultural division, immigration, and self-empowered citizens.

… Ten years ago, we might have asked if there really are places in America where the forces of disruption were arriving together. But today, we might well ask the opposite: Is there anywhere they are not? It’s easy to see the downside—the harm—that can come from these powerful disruptive forces, but the innovator’s predisposition is to look for the silver lining in the clouds. Innovators, management guru Peter Drucker wrote, “exploit change as an opportunity” to create something different. As each of the five forces disrupts communities, it also opens up opportunities for innovation.

Check out the nuPOLIS Introduction and Chapter 1.