Lisa Poley
Cohousing communities are serving as ‘school houses’ for profoundly rich forms of democratic engagement with significant potential for fostering social change in the broader civic arena beyond their boundaries. This session will raise awareness of how living in cohousing may impact our civic and democratic skills and practices. Participants will learn how to help build the skills and capacities that increase our power and potential as citizens in a democracy. In this particularly dynamic election season, how is your community experiencing democracy beyond its boundaries?
Dr. Lisa Poley is a founding member of Shadowlake Village Cohousing in Blacksburg, Virginia and recently completed her doctoral research which focused on democratic and civic engagement and cohousing. She is currently a post-doctoral scholar at Virginia Tech teaching and researching in the areas of community development, democracy building and sustainability.