Conversations in Community Change: More Voices from the Field

The Community Change Collaborative (CCC) at Virginia Tech brings together student and faculty researchers, practitioners, and community partners who are committed to enacting democratic social change at local, regional, and global levels. Under the sponsorship of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance (IPG), CCC promotes thoughtful dialogue with leaders who have devoted their professional lives to spurring or assisting with community change. This book is the product of those conversations.

Following up on the successful 2021 book, Conversations in Community Change: Voices from the Field, this new volume features 16 interviews, conducted by CCC members, with thought leaders from a variety of fields and backgrounds including the arts, journalism, political activism, law, education, and science. A frequent focus of discussion in the interviews is the indispensable role that citizen agency plays in bringing about true democratic social change. The guests share stories and insights from their work, discussing successes, challenges and setbacks, and innovative approaches. The interviews originally aired on WUVT’s Talk at the Table radio program or were featured in the podcast series, Trustees Without Borders, both hosted by IPG senior fellow Andy Morikawa. Three broad themes emerge: the imperative and animating power of the imagination, the importance of story or narrative to individual and community self-understanding, and the abiding significance of human agency to democratic change and possibility.