A “Think and Do Tank” that provides innovative solutions and assistance for problems ranging from local housing shortages and community breakdown to globalization and international oil.
Activities
New Commons says, “Our focus is on business, economic, social, environmental, cultural and built environment planning and development – and the integrated planning for these types of development.” The major projects on the “thinking” side of the tank include publications; visiting fellowships that fund writing and research from major civic innovators; work with the Congress of New Urbanism; and work on staff propositions relating to community design, entrepreneurship, and placemaking. On the “doing” side, work includes long-term community planning and design projects with communities and regions; consulting; convenings; and research.
Relevant Project(s)
Most of New Commons’ projects are long-term collaborations with local or regional planning and entrepreneurship processes. Fellowships and Residencies at the organization are also congruent. These include:
- An Island Plan for Martha’s Vineyard. Asks important questions about who should be involved in planning, what forces of change will shape the island, and what current conditions on the island should be at the center of planning.
- Providence Plexus Project. Uses an integrated strategy to help Providence position itself as a hub for design thinking and innovation. Through collaboration, systems thinking, and strategic mapping, Plexus has shown Rhode Island “ways to create something much more than was originally seen.”
- James Hillman Fellowship. Post-Jungian psychologist James Hillman has written extensively on “City and Soul.” His work at New Commons brings elements of psychology and sociology into discussions of communities, design, economics, and the environment. A central theme in his work is how cities contribute to the psychological well-being (or illness) of its residents, and how residents’ mental states can contribute to the experience of a city.
- Mark Binder Residency. A professional storyteller and author, Binder focuses on the applicability of storytelling to fields and industries from design to executive business management to community revitalization. His workshop, “Story Making and Story Telling,” examines the potential for stories to galvanize and improve communities, businesses, or organizations—and the equal potential for stories to keep those places and groups stuck in current problems.
Relevant Methodologies
One of New Commons’ main issue areas and methods is Placemaking, which brings together important planning concepts that are often handled separately. New Commons identifies five major elements of community development and planning: social, environmental, economic, cultural, and built capital. The integrated approach uses multiple-bottom lines in decision-making and also centers around the specific, local place in question.
Another important strategy is community revitalization. New Commons believes that many places are “on the cusp” or revitalization, but we lack an understanding of the specific tipping points that can push a community in the right direction. In projects, research, and writing, the organization seeks to understand whether it is concrete elements like amount of retail or available housing, or “the quality of home-spun, authentic and different” characteristics of the place.
In these areas and others, New Commons uses a systems approach to apply the best thinking, newest technologies and ideas, and most relevant information from outside places and experiences. The combination of “thinking and doing” allows New Commons to develop strategies, test them, and refine them again. Finally, a major focus is keeping elements of the past that are important, but replacing the rest with new ideas and tools. This philosophy recognizes the tendency of places and projects to retain old elements for sentimentality and to resist change, neither of which helps communities to move forward. Storytelling is an important vehicle for doing so, and for driving change in many of New Commons’ projects. Storyteller Mark Binder theorizes that the way a story is told can either drive and encourage change, or impede it, depending on the outlook with which it is presented.
Region
National
More Information
56 Pine Street
Providence, RI 02903
401-351-7110 (phone)
401-351-7158 (fax)