ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the best driver of deep collaboration and the transformation of broken relationships is compassion. The challenge is to discover what sorts of processes will enable the nonviolent management, resolution, or transformation of conflict. All human beings need to have somewhere that they call home, some place where they can feel secure and some place where they can realize themselves in community. This seems like a prerequisite for being compassionate. From an institutional perspective, compassionate institutions and compassionate communities are committed to celebrating difference and being hospitable to strangers in ways which promote mutuality, inclusion, and tolerance. Enlarging boundaries of compassion suggests that we need to be much more explicit about acknowledging the role and importance of emotions in economic, social, and political life. It is one thing to argue for higher levels of interpersonal sensitivity, care, and compassion at a personal and interpersonal level.
