Explicit Agreements

Agreements about how we’ll talk and relate to each other are a commitment to be responsible for the quality of our relationships.

Art of Hosting, Civic PracticeBeth SandersDecember 3, 2021Agreements, Art of Hosting, Conversation, CircleComment

I Said YES to Evolving Professionals

To participate in the evolution of our cities and communities, city planners can no longer work the way they’ve worked for decades.

City Making, Civic Practice, Art of HostingBeth SandersNovember 15, 2021work, planning, planners, urban planning, evolution, Art of HostingComment

Transition Thinking Enables Community (Itch #5)

Community has a vital role to play when emergencies arise: to enable transition from what was to what could be.

Resilience Requires Transition (Itch #4)

When busy rescuing others or looking for others to rescue us, we miss the opportunity to renew ourselves.

Rescue is Not Resilience (Itch #3)

Rescue embodies resilience only when the rescuer takes action the rescued can’t do for themselves (and wants).

Choices to Enable Our Emergency Response-Ability (Itch #2)

Six ideas and eight suggestions to improve a community’s ability to be proactive, responsive and response-ABLE as the scales of emergencies grow.

Scales of Emergency Response (Itch #1)

I had an “allergic reaction” this summer to some language people around me are using to invite climate action: “be a first responder.” And so, I sit and write as a means to scratch the itch. What I found: As the scale of emergency grows, the ability of community to be proactive, responsive and response-ABLE becomes imperative.

Civic Practice, Be the Best Citizen You Can BeBeth SandersSeptember 2, 2021First Responder, work, Civic Practice, Climate, EmergencyComment

“I Never Imagined You Know So Little”

6 questions to ask at any time in your career, in Beth’s address delivered to the Master of City Planning graduates at the University of Manitoba, June 2021.

Civic Practice, Be the Best Citizen You Can BeBeth SandersJune 24, 2021Graduation, workComment

And the Jury Said...

Nest City serves as a fascinating study of how cities and their citizens work together to serve each other, how they are responsible for each other, how they grow together and how, with shared understanding, they together can create something extraordinary.

About Writing Nest CityBeth SandersJune 10, 2021Celebration, Awards Comments

Regenerative City Circles

The new diagrams we use to describe our economic, social and ecological worlds reveal connections and understanding.

City MakingBeth SandersJune 8, 2021nest city, Doughnut Economics, Sustainable DevelopmentComment

Social Habitat Competencies

Let’s release the binary ways we define city planning practice and grow our relationship skills (for the official and unofficial planners out there)

Civic PracticeBeth SandersMay 28, 2021Social Habitat, Relationship, APPIComment

Cities and Citizens are Perpetually Unfinished

Nine practices to see, acknowledge and respond to our uneasy world.

Civic PracticeBeth SandersMay 21, 2021Civic Practice, TransitionComment

The Older Person I Want To Be

As Mother’s Day approaches, I want to be more aware of how my behaviour erodes the growth of younger people in my life, especially when I am feeling challenged, hurt, or left behind.

Be the Best Citizen You Can Be, Civic PracticeBeth SandersMay 7, 2021Civic Practice, Third Act, GenerationsComment

What I Asked the Mayor

I put this question to Alberta's big city mayors Don Iveson and Naheed Nenshi, last week: What do you now know about your city that you didn’t know before you were mayor?

Civic PracticeBeth SandersApril 19, 2021Simple question, MayorComment

Care Out in the Open

Protection feeds my fear of other humans. Being neighbourly feeds my desire to connect with other humans

Prescribe AND Enable

In my quest to figure out how planners and everyone else in the city can work better together, I’ve learned the magic of finding the minimal critical structure that enables new possibilities.

Art of Hosting, Civic Practice, My WorkBeth SandersMarch 24, 2021Art of Hosting, Facilitation, city makingComment

Let’s Exercise Our Inquiry Muscles

Improving our cities requires us to be in a better relationship with ourselves: our intentions, actions, and the consequences of our actions.

Civic Practice, Art of HostingBeth SandersMarch 12, 2021Inquiry, improvement, Feedback, feedback loops, IntentionComment

Choose a Direction for the City

The implementation of Edmonton's city plan requres a culture change--inside and outside city hall. And it all hinges on how we handle accountabilty and shame.

Beth SandersMarch 3, 2021Comment