like "This is fine," featuring a dog wearing a bowler hat in a room on fire - tend to dominate social media during times when the world appears to be falling apart. But what bothers people most can spur action and change, especially on the local level, according to Lisa Silvestri, associate teaching professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State.
Silvestri shifted her research focus to peace- and community building after studying war and its onset for more than a decade. Her new book, "Peace by Peace: Risking Public Action, Creating Social Change," tells the stories of ordinary individuals who took small steps to make big changes in their local communities. The book offers a blueprint for tackling local challenges and reconnecting with physical spaces and people.
Penn State News spoke with Silvestri about her book, the modern problems it addresses and how ordinary people can take small steps to make large impacts.
Q: Where did the idea for "Peace by Peace" come from?
Silvestri: The idea emerged in summer 2018. I just had my first child and was living in Washington state. I was on parental leave. That can be an isolating feeling, especially when you're someone who loves going to work like I did, seeing my colleagues and my students, and then suddenly I'm in this house with a newborn, the demands were different, and I was tired. Plus, wildfire smoke led to a city ordinance to stay inside.
All I was hearing on the news was sadness, dislocation and separation. I thought, this is not who we are, and this is not the world that I want for my child. I needed to hear that people were doing good things, so I curated an email list of people who I knew were artists, philosophers, changemakers and community activists. I said, hey, who's doing small-scale, life-giving, community building type work? Responses started peppering in, and I thought how I would love to talk to these people and find out how they got started. Always aware of my role as an educator, I wanted to glean some tips for my students who want to do good in the world. I was crowdsourcing hope.
