A while back I promised to pull together a review of Davids Gauntletts ”Making is Connecting”, somehow work overtook my good intentions, but here it is (better late than never)
Making is Connecting Book
In short, Davids book is great read, it is life confirming in the sense that it points to our drive to express ourselves and the importance of that endeavour (from an LSP perspective, it would have been great to see some sort of connection with what happens when employees craft their strategy, vision etc, but who knows may be this will come later)
Overall, read this if you want to feel that your fiddling around with your website (or with bricks), nursing your garden, fixing old cars etc have a meaning beyond being harmless pastimes.
One of David’s points that as an LSP facilitator it is easy to sympathise with, is that he wants change the understanding of creativity from being something that concerns the few and “chosen” to something that we all have. Creativity is something that is present, or could be, in everyday-life.
He outlines a number of theories and understandings of “the meaning of making”, e.g. that it can be seen as a reaction to dominant and more commercial cultures, or historically, the industrialism (it made me think of the microbreweries vs the big global brands). However, with a nice touch, he also has a chapter on “Web 2.0, not all rosy” where he points to some of the challenges he sees
If I were to conclude, then I enjoyed the book and learned something from it. In particular, I like the concluding chapter with a set of five key principles and “imagined futures”. It helps anchor learning and insights
Strictly speaking not a book that will help build your LSP practise, but a good book nonetheless ;-) And, one that I would recommend reading
