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, and 86 percent believe it’s possible to disagree in a healthy way. Yet with increasing political and social fragmentation, many of us don’t know how to move past our differences. Civil rights scholar john a. powell presents an actionable path through “bridging” that helps us communicate, coexist, and imagine a new story for our shared future where we all belong.

With inimitable warmth and vision, powell offers a framework for building cohesion and solidarity between disparate beliefs and groups. He defines key concepts such as “othering,” which primes us to see people as a threat; “breaking,” which excludes people or sees them as threatening our belonging; and finally “bridging,” which fosters acceptance both of those we might have othered and even aspects of ourselves. He shares personal reflections as well as practices to help you begin bridging wherever you are—in your community, friendships, family, workplace, and even those with whom you might never have imagined you could find common ground. He calls upon us not just to engage with bridging but to become bridgers.

“Bridging is a salve for our fractured world,” powell says. “We can overcome the illusion of separateness by honoring our differences, transcending the notion that difference divides us, and instead co-create a world where everyone belongs.”