Survey: African environmental groups working towards just transitions

BERKELEY, CA: The overwhelming majority of African climate, agri-food, and environmental organizations are working toward just transitions in Africa, and many are doing so through food systems transformation, a new study released by UC Berkeley's...

African Just Transitions

In our research for this paper, we focus on how African climate, agri-food, and environmental organizations are combating the drivers of the climate crisis, managing the impacts of the climate crisis, and forging strategies to build climate resilience.

Video: Why We Need to Build and Bridge

OBI Director john powell gives a response to Eboo Patel's talk with additional reflections on the needs and challenges of bridging work and the potential and perceived tensions between "bridging" and justice. Also joining the conversation is GGSC...

Race and Politics

Assistant Director Stephen Menendian investigates the problem of "entanglement" in gerrymandering cases, where race and political identification are so bound-up that it is difficult in many cases to differentiate between motives when evaluating...

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing in 2023

I recently gave a talk to a local California Association of Realtors group on the “Past, Present and Future of Fair Housing” to commemorate Fair Housing month (April), and to help the group think about their role in promoting fair housing. It is...

Video: Bridging Towards a Just, Inclusive, Pluralistic, Democracy

So how can bridge-builders support one another and the communities with which they engage to show up to the table consistently and fully as we work toward a just, inclusive, pluralistic democracy? What does it mean to model pluralism in a way that...

Video: Beyond Generations

This April 18 event featured Eunice Lin Nichols, Co-CEO of Co-Generate; Bobby Duffy, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute at King's College and author of Generations: Does when you're born shape who you are?; and Manu Meel...

Towards a third Reconstruction, featuring john a. powell

On Friday April 14, OBI Director powell spoke on an the afternoon panel entitled “ Beyond War on Crime/Towards a Third Reconstruction.” Professor powell spoke about the promise of both the first and second reconstructions, as well as the challenges...

The Belonging Barometer: The State of Belonging in America

On April 12, 2023, OBI director john a. powell was a featured panelist in a webinar introducing Over Zero and the American Immigration Council’s Belonging Barometer—as well as reporting the results of a national survey which featured the Barometer...

john a. powell at Bioneers: 'We need a more complex story'

In an April 8 keynote at the Bioneers conference in Berkeley, OBI Director john a. powell spoke about the importance of recognizing our interconnected relationship to both nature, and fellow humans. Against the separations that society has...

Form And Substance

The demand for racial equity has acquired greater intensity and urgency in recent years. Advocacy groups are demanding policies designed to address racial inequality in housing, the criminal justice system, and health care systems, among other areas...

Belonging: A Weekly Practice

Belonging: a Weekly Practice Space (BaWPS) is a free, weekly, drop-in space from the Othering & Belonging Institute. In form and content, it responds to some of the most consistent questions we get about belonging: Is belonging a destination, a...

Video: What if Justice is Getting in the Way?

In this March 29 event as part of the ongoing series The Edges in the Middle, scholar and activist Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Global Senior Fellow Bayo Akomolafe explore Black identity, Black excellence, and the limits of seeking inclusion...

Equity vs. Equality: What's the Difference?

There is a clip of US Senator Bernie Sanders making the rounds from a recent episode of Bill Maher’s HBO program, in which the host asked Senator Sanders to distinguish “equality” from “equity.” Senator Sanders explained that “equality” refers to...

Forging a Progressive Response to Fragmentation

For some, the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election and the prosecution of January 6th insurrectionists might suggest that US democracy has remained strong through years of social and political instability. In this year’s State of the Union address, President Joe Biden claimed that US democracy is “unbowed and unbroken.” However, it would be remiss to believe that the threat of authoritarianism has abated.

Explore Othering and Belonging

The Power of Bridging

A research-backed guide for building bridges across difference in any area of our lives, from esteemed civil rights scholar john a. powell. We don't want to live in a society in turmoil. In the US, 93 percent of people want to reduce divisiveness...
Apr
6

Depolarization Day

Want a chance to hear from experts studying the root of what’s driving us apart and how we come back together? Eager to build the skills to listen empathetically, elicit narratives of connection, and interview professionally? Looking for a chance...

Belonging Without Othering

The root of all inequality is the process of othering – and its solution is the practice of belonging We all yearn for connection and community, but we live in a time when calls for further division along the well-wrought lines of religion, race...