As someone who leads a community of creatives, I was excited to read more about finding, developing, and practicing belonging. Some beautiful insights and reminders that connection is important.

Through her research, psychologist Lisa Kentgen identified six key characteristics of vibrant and healthy communities. They are; commitment to care, acceptance, diversity, skilful conflict resolution, bonding rituals, and hospitality.

In examining and explaining each pillar to the reader, Kentgen profiles a different community that puts them into practice. The communities and groups profiled include a 500-member choir in Columbus, Ohio; a study circle to build connections between Native and non-Native people in a small town in South Dakota; and a tiny-home village for people who had been chronically houseless in Austin, Texas.

For me, some of the profiles were stronger than others, but overall, The Practice of Belonging is a fascinating look at the many ways of building and maintaining community.

What an amazing book, a treasure of ideas and information on what it means to create a true community!

The focus of this work is vibrant communities, gathering examples covering different types of communities and how they succeeded to become open, inclusive, and with a quality of making everyone feel welcomed and part of the group.

First of all, this book is a bearer of hope. Hope that this feeling of belonging can be fulfilled, and it can be translated into all encompassing communities, or communities that meet on certain times or with very specific purposes.

Second of all, it's a lesson in fostering this feeling, in analyzing it, and showing what it means in this day and time when we try to bring our differences to the table and honor each experience.

Reading this has been a wonderful, full of insights journey, and I appreciate greatly the care and empathy the author used to bring all this examples and their traits into the spotlight. I cannot recommend this book enough.

I received a copy of this in order to offer my personal view on it.

Community values and practices are always a hot topic but with the pandemic, more people than ever are talking about how we connect, where our communities work and where they don't. Finding solutions for issues is a challenge, and so I was curious to read this book.

Lisa Kentgen is a psychologist with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology who works in academia and in clinical settings. It's a wonderful combination because this book marries solid research to practical application and provides lovely insight.

This is one of the best books I've read recently. The chapter on how caring transforms on a personal and community basis alone is worth a seminar.

I loved the personal anecdotes and the reflections on dealing with differences. The first gave me a vivid impression of communities I don't know personally. The second are food for self-improvement. Also, as The Practice of Belonging covers a variety of approaches and attitudes, it is a lovely multicultural read. That was simply a joy!

As I read it, I found myself wondering how it would work in my community, in Malaysia, and at home, in the UK. For example, the chapter on hospitality talks about connecting but it's a topic that is also deeply connected to architecture, gender roles, and food security. So will need to read that again to get the most out of it.

What I liked: The simple language, broad approach plus discreet references. The combination makes for an easy read but if you want to chase down original sources, you can.

What I wasn't fond of: nothing. This was an excellent book.

Definitely five stars. Highly recommended.

This is a profile of a number of different communities in the US with particular principles to be applied to groups to foster greater understanding across society.

I found this enjoyable but I didn't feel that there were enough groups featured. It felt a little bit short in that respect. More could have been done to show how the groups operated as this felt rather vague and would have helped with how this related to the understanding of the underlying principles.

The practice of belonging refleja nuestra necesidad de pertenecer a través de los diversos ejemplos de comunidad que comparte la autora.

Cada comunidad tiene algo en común que es lo que une a sus miembros (llámese budismo, budismo y justicia social, prácticas indígenas y enraizadoras ancestrales).
A pesar de ello, la autora plantea que lo importante es la compasión y el poder participar de comunidades diversas tanto étnicas, lenguaje, estatus social, ideología, etc,.

Therapist Dr. Lisa Kentgen has written a wonderful book that shows how critical it is for the future of our society to create more vibrant communities where diverse groups of people can find belonging. She makes a point that anyone can start these groups but there are characteristics or qualities of communities that stay intact and are nurturing to its members. #1 is an explicit commitment to care for each other.
This is the opposite of the transactional society we live in. Bring in relationship with others is the objective of forming a vibrant community. Lisa interviews people from various communities for their stories and insights on why this way of living is good for all. This book has definitely made me think about how I want to foster more connection and belonging with others. Well-researched and written with heart, this is a great resource to counteract all the loneliness that exists in our world today.

Very interesting book and more in depth than i expected. A timely book as fostering community is more important than ever in the trials of our time.

I think this book is probably right for somebody, but it was not what I was hoping for. It's clearly well-researched and well-written, and I did find it interesting. However, it felt more macro than I had hoped. I was hoping for lessons i could take to combat loneliness, foster diversity, and cultivate caring relationships in my own community. This felt like I needed to build a transformative -- and niche -- community from scratch. I still found the example communities really interesting and if I am ever in the position to build or transform a community from scratch I will definitely return to this book -- but I'm not sure my current community will be the better for it given my limited scope and power.

The content is really interesting - I think it's a good systematic examination of how people find and create "spaces" and communities of belonging. I learned a lot about the work people are doing to cultivate this all over the world and have food-for-thought on creating this in my own life.

Two things you know before you jump in to this book:
1) This book is an examination of spaces of belonging. If you're looking for an instruction manual with step-by-step clear ideas to try, you will not find this. You'll have to synthesize that on your own, but it's there amongst the analysis.

2) The tone of the book is highly academic. I kind of expected something along the lines of the Blue Zones book where they look at communities and then have clear takeaways and a conversational tone. It's not a difficult read, but it definitely feels more like I'm reading a really extended academic paper vs. a chill non-fiction book that I can use to rethink how I'm living.

Thant being said, I did enjoy the book, especially in the wake of our covid/social distancing fractured community that is just starting to come back together and make sense of our collective experience. I found may things I will incorporate into my own small community of family, friends, neighbors, and fellow parents.

The Practice of Belonging by Lisa Kentgen is a gorgeous guide on how to build healthy and stable community. There are amazing journal prompts that will help you build the continued leadership skills that you will need to be a part of a happy community!

Love the in-depth explorations that help us appreciate the strategies and tactics that might create the conditions for belonging. As an educator, I was inspired in many ways to adust my curriculum and behavior to further help my students feel like they belong at the university. Anyone who cares about belonging will learn from these case studies.

A very positive and hopeful book that uses existing groups to illustrate the several stated principles for community building. While I do think anecdotal evidence is good, I would like it in conjunction with research or more strategic advice as well.