What Can We Do About Political Polarization and the Deepening of the Urban/Rural Divide?

•Understand how the rural-suburban-urban divide impacts the future of your community.
•Learn how to build community cohesion as a neutral facilitator in a politically divided world.
•Evaluate how local actions can reduce the further polarization of American society.

Political division in America has not been this deep since the Reformation following the Civil War. What can planners do about this national political divide? In a recent PM Magazine article, Martha Perego, ICMA-CM, describes the challenges of Being Politically Neutral in a Partisan World: “We live in a world where there is no shortage of divisive and intractable issues facing society. We are divided by polarized politics that hamper our ability to find common ground on the way forward…This polarization has created an uncivil atmosphere where it seems that we can no longer have open and frank conversations. We just head to our respective corners. Most of these contentious issues that divide our society have a direct nexus to local governments and to the quality of life for residents.” During this interactive virtual session, we will discuss how the rural-suburban-urban divide impacts the future of our communities. We will equip you with new tools to learn how to build community cohesion and reduce the further polarization of American society.