Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change [Paperback]

The two methods most frequently employed to solve our toughest social problems—either relying on violence and aggression or submitting to endless negotiation and compromise—are fundamentally flawed. This is because the seemingly contradictory drives behind these approaches—power, the desire to achieve one’s purpose, andlove, the urge to unite with others—are actually complementary. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.” But how do you combine them?

For the last twenty years Adam Kahane of Reos Partners and the University of Oxford has worked around the world on many tough and vital challenges: food security, health care, economic development, judicial reform, peacemaking, climate change. In this extraordinary book he draws on this experience to delve deeply into the dual natures of both power and love, exploring their subtle and intricate interplay. With disarming honesty Kahane relates how, through trial and error, he has learned to balance them and offers practical guidance for how others can learn that balance as well.Preface
Introduction: Beyond War and Peace
Two fundamental drives
Our full world
Two pitfalls
An imperative
Chapter 1: The Two Sides of Power
Generative power
Degenerative power
Love is what makes power generative
Chapter 2: The Two Sides of Love
Generative love
Degenerative love
Power is what makes love generative
Chapter 3: The Dilemma of Power and Love
Chapter 4: Falling
Improving child nutrition in India
How to fall
Chapter 5: Stumbling
Bridging divides in Israel
Building democracy in South Africa
How to stumble
Chapter 6: Walking
Growing sustainable food in Europe and the Americas
Mitigating climate change in Canada
How to walk
Conclusion: To Lead Means to Step Forward
Becoming aware of both our power and ourls4