ABSTRACT
Laurence Sherman worked on issues involving urban transportation, natural resource management, local economic development, and more. Whether in cases of architectural or urban design, larger urban or small community cases, Sherman shows people how people's listening and learning can help to evoke smart and responsive proposals for planning projects and then implementation. Some representatives volunteered to help one another out because by now they all had a stake in the plan that balanced the budget and gave them the kind of transit service that they wanted throughout their whole sector. The "talking circle" is in stark contrast to the typical participatory meeting. The talking circle comes from an aboriginal practice where only the person who is holding the "talking stick" gets to talk. What happens is that people generally come with their complaints or their positions or their postures, but they will begin very modestly.
