In order to develop sustainable solutions to cities and communities, one would need to look at both local and distributed energy production as well as product service systems. When homes and public buildings have renewable energy sources while connected to the energy grid, and having public means of short-range transportation that is charged by the energy grid, then the combination of the two allows for new methods to improve the quality of life within the community.

 
Robert Dahl has articulated the need for economic democracy in order to preserve political democracy. Economic democracy, through such things as cooperatives, protects economic liberty alongside economic equality. Economic equality will then protect political equality that in turn insures political liberty as expressed in political democracy.

 
Ernesto Laclau has done extensive work on populism as a phenomenon. He has described it as the formation of a people, a group based on common opposition, that then addresses the state. The equivalences made between individuals in order to form the people goes beyond the class struggle described by Marx. Those that enter the identity of the people retain their unique and diverse qualities and oppose a state form that develops inequality and hierarchy, including class divisions.

 
There was mention of what could be considered the "real America" in this past pesidential election. But the characterization of America by conservatives failed to include its radical roots. There is a strong history of anarchism in America that has actually strengthened this country as a community instead of an abstract national identity. This counter-narrative is needed now more than ever in order to enact real change.

 
Here is a very interesting visualization of the phenomenon of E-mail threads. Each message in the conversation is arranged in a row of dots, and arching lines are made from one dot to another in order to show how the latter dot is a response to the former. The various ways to picture the flow and organization of information can allow people to understand how communication technology affects the human condition.