The Civic Stakes of Organizational Disagreement

Learning to disagree well is a civic act, argue Peter Levine and Dayna L. Cunningham in Stanford Social Innovation Review. Drawing on examples from the Civil Rights Movement, Tufts University, and Costco, they show how organizations that create conditions for constructive dissent help sustain democratic habits and how clear commitments embedded in durable practices allow institutions to absorb external pressure without abandoning core values.

Peter Levine is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, and a leading figure in civic studies. Dayna L. Cunningham is the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Dean of Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, a civil rights lawyer by training who previously led MIT's Community Innovators Lab.

Read the article here.