The reconstruction has begun within each discipline; we see that there already are alternative narratives in place –– alternative versions of reality that value interdependence over individualism, relatedness over isolation, generosity over self-interest, cooperation over competition, abundance over scarcity, local custom over scale, aesthetics over efficiency, and local vitality over centralized supply and the power of place over the unfulfilling promise of the virtual world.

Care for citizens over consumption, community over empire, learning over efficiency, and humanity over performance are the golden threads, the integrating fabric of thinking that supports the action in each discipline moving towards the commons. These define the alternative to the business perspective. They see that the path to re-humanization is through a community focus. This body of thinking in the disciplines sets the foundation for communal restoration.

Within each of the core disciplines there is a radical subculture creating a counter-narrative, committed to the re-humanizing and restorative project. These radical efforts reject the assumptions of empire and support the experience of community, what it offers and what it challenges.

For example, there are an economics of well-being, a theology of the commons, an architecture of aliveness, art as communal occurrence, and generative journalism. Each believes in the common good and in the primacy of citizens to engage with each other in determining their future. Each advocates the centrality of relatedness and the fact of abundance. We want to publicize and immerse ourselves in the voices that are igniting and creating a new narrative for each discipline:

5.5.1 Olivia Saunders, Edgar Cahn, Jonathan Rowe, Marjorie Kelly, Peter Barnes in economics

5.5.2 Walter Brueggemann and Jacques Ellul in theology.

5.5.3 Raphaela Platow, Frederick Franck, Playback Theatre in art

5.5.4 Peter Pula, Peggy Holman in journalism.

5.5.5 Christopher Alexander in architecture.

Recognizing these alternatives is the restorative shift. This is reform as the word itself promises: re-formation. We need to understand and make visible the core of conventional thinking in each of these disciplines and, at the same time, grasp the real, counter-conventional reforms that are emerging.