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On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation
In an age of social isolation, what does it mean to belong? "In this timely, warm, and persuasive book, [Kim Samuel] shares stories and solutions for reclaiming common purpose and authentic connection. On Belonging is essential reading for anyone who wants to imagine and build a more inclusive future."—Timothy Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics
Humanity is at an inflection point. Stress, disconnection, and increasing environmental degradation have people yearning for more than just material progress, personal freedom, or political stability. We are searching for deeper connection. We are longing to belong.
On Belonging is an exploration of the crisis of social isolation and of the fundamental human need to belong. It considers belonging across four core in our relationships with other people, in our rootedness in nature, in our ability to influence political and economic decision-making, and in our finding of meaning and purpose in our lives, with lessons on how to create communities centered on human connection.
A trailblazing advocate and thought leader on questions of social connectedness, Kim Samuel introduces readers to leaders around the world who are doing the work to cultivate belonging. Whether through sports, medicine, music, business, culture, or advocacy, the people and programs in this book offer us meaningful lessons on building a world where we all feel at home.
Humanity is at an inflection point. Stress, disconnection, and increasing environmental degradation have people yearning for more than just material progress, personal freedom, or political stability. We are searching for deeper connection. We are longing to belong.
On Belonging is an exploration of the crisis of social isolation and of the fundamental human need to belong. It considers belonging across four core in our relationships with other people, in our rootedness in nature, in our ability to influence political and economic decision-making, and in our finding of meaning and purpose in our lives, with lessons on how to create communities centered on human connection.
A trailblazing advocate and thought leader on questions of social connectedness, Kim Samuel introduces readers to leaders around the world who are doing the work to cultivate belonging. Whether through sports, medicine, music, business, culture, or advocacy, the people and programs in this book offer us meaningful lessons on building a world where we all feel at home.
- GenresNonfictionSelf Help
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 13, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 27, 2022
i think i've found the pinnacle of faux-progressive, liberal, corporate apologist, anti-communist, pro-incarceration propaganda, where all the buzzwords conservatives complain about, even though they've become mere shells of the significance once held, are fluent; representation and belonging and reaching out, migration rights, gay rights, women's rights, "the right to belong," samuel talks about also must reside in a white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist society. she says to imagine a better world and does the typical liberal listing of mlk jr and mandella quotes, but never the socialist side of their politics. i don't think the word capitalism is even mentioned once in 300 pages. we need to do something about global warming, but fails to mention one of the biggest polluters, the military industrial complex. everyone belongs, except palestinians in an apartheid state, or migrants dispersed due to destabilization from the actions of u.s. empire and capitalist exploitation. we need more healthcare, but never mentions nationalizing it. team building, unity building, but not working class solidarity or union building. -- she even praises prince/king charles ... in 2022 --. 'on belonging' fails to even acknowledge anarchist societies or socialist, communist countries past or present, and speaks of big imaginations involving equality but never a future socialism. nothing about wages for housework or black panthers. nor does the book ever go into the scientific depths of belonging except for some psychiatry fun facts. how to make prisons "less bad" instead of abolishing them altogether. the classic talking about mental health and friendship benches but not how society drives us towards needing the services in the first place. the anecdotal nature also comes off very "i have first nations friends and black friends in africa, and even a non-binary friend" rather than inspirational when bringing up different "ngo" projects and "entrepreneurs." zero substance, bumper sticker writer. avoid. maybe read kropotkin or something instead.
Did Not Finish
December 21, 2022DNF after 3 chapters.
Had high hopes, especially after the mention in the intro of how people’s views of the disabled creating even more isolation. The book is more about great trips the author took to meet great people and pieces of wisdom spread out than an analysis of what makes us feel like we don’t belong and the ways we and society can help improve the situation.
Had high hopes, especially after the mention in the intro of how people’s views of the disabled creating even more isolation. The book is more about great trips the author took to meet great people and pieces of wisdom spread out than an analysis of what makes us feel like we don’t belong and the ways we and society can help improve the situation.
March 31, 2023
Any leftist who finished this book has my admiration and condolences.
I tapped out around 20% when Samuel's started quoting the World Bank on poverty inequality as though they don't literally cause this by looting, pillaging, and heavy-handedly forcing market systems that don't work on whole ass countries and followed up by quoting citizens of those countries on how isolated they feel in their colonization (finessed to not indict neoliberal capitalism, of course).
This is apologia for neoliberal ideology designed to make you look the other way while actual research is damning it.
I tapped out around 20% when Samuel's started quoting the World Bank on poverty inequality as though they don't literally cause this by looting, pillaging, and heavy-handedly forcing market systems that don't work on whole ass countries and followed up by quoting citizens of those countries on how isolated they feel in their colonization (finessed to not indict neoliberal capitalism, of course).
This is apologia for neoliberal ideology designed to make you look the other way while actual research is damning it.
July 11, 2023
Most of the book is neoliberal drivel but I do think of the research around urban design and how to design communities for sustainability and to encourage interaction were really well done.
September 4, 2023
It just kept going and going.
October 19, 2022
Incredibly important work! Highly recommend!
January 9, 2023
Wow, this is narcissistic garbage , tho I didn't finish it so maybe it gets better? Doubt it.
Neoliberal shill, in which the heiress to a large scale steel company fails to address a key issue about society and belonging...wealth inequality.
The writing itself is fine, but the actual content is basically just out of touch rich lady name dropping her important friends and their respective life lessons..
Neoliberal shill, in which the heiress to a large scale steel company fails to address a key issue about society and belonging...wealth inequality.
The writing itself is fine, but the actual content is basically just out of touch rich lady name dropping her important friends and their respective life lessons..
January 1, 2025
Dry, privileged, lacked substance.
September 14, 2022
4.5. A collection of stories and musing on isolation and belonging come together to form Samuel’s thesis on the right to belong in a community. As someone who cares a lot about the toll of isolation, especially with regards to the increased burden of isolation in disability and Illness, I appreciate any book that’s willing to handle this topic head on.
One of the true strengths of this book is the collection of wonderful people that Samuel was able to pull together to interview and profile throughout. Each viewpoint adds something new and is a real benefit to each section.
I definitely think this book is worth reading, though it’s likely better consumed in bits rather than read all at once. I prefer books that can be binge-read but it’s not a fault of the text. There’s some repetitiveness but it generally serves to get the point across and doesn’t cross the line into annoying as is often the case in a lot of non-fiction I read.
Overall this is worth picking up! I was really happy to have given this a read and will likely return to re-read some of my sticky noted sections.
One of the true strengths of this book is the collection of wonderful people that Samuel was able to pull together to interview and profile throughout. Each viewpoint adds something new and is a real benefit to each section.
I definitely think this book is worth reading, though it’s likely better consumed in bits rather than read all at once. I prefer books that can be binge-read but it’s not a fault of the text. There’s some repetitiveness but it generally serves to get the point across and doesn’t cross the line into annoying as is often the case in a lot of non-fiction I read.
Overall this is worth picking up! I was really happy to have given this a read and will likely return to re-read some of my sticky noted sections.
September 21, 2022
This book was absolutely amazing. I enjoyed reading this book. I truly feel that everyone should read this book because there’s a lot of inspirational people that are mentioned in this book. Everyone that will read this book will connect with one or more of the inspirational people stories about struggling with connection, isolation, mental health, acceptance, belonging, race, gender and many other things that we all struggle with.
I am truly grateful to call this amazing woman one of my dearest friends who wrote this incredible book. I also feel truly honored that I got to be apart of this book sharing my feelings about belonging, acceptance and talking a little bit about being a person with an intellectual disability. It’s such a great honor to be one of so many other incredible people along with my husband who got to be apart of this book.
I am truly grateful to call this amazing woman one of my dearest friends who wrote this incredible book. I also feel truly honored that I got to be apart of this book sharing my feelings about belonging, acceptance and talking a little bit about being a person with an intellectual disability. It’s such a great honor to be one of so many other incredible people along with my husband who got to be apart of this book.
November 9, 2022
This book is a landmark! Kim Samuel has covered a pivotal topic that cuts across so many domains in our lives and the lives of others. Not only is belonging so critical to the challenge of innumerable disenfranchised populations, it also touches on some fundamental aspects of each of our lives. It represents an inalienable part of our humanity. Recognizing in ourselves the need to belong and in others the Right to Belong touches a very deep and sacred part of all of us. Kim displays her passion as well as her deep immersion in the topic with a book that is very well researched and beautifully written. Her honesty and warm heart come across in every page. A must read.
Ricardo B Levy, PhD
Faculty, Stanford University Chemical Engineering
Author, Letters to a Young Entrepreneur-Succeeding in Business without Losing at Life
Ricardo B Levy, PhD
Faculty, Stanford University Chemical Engineering
Author, Letters to a Young Entrepreneur-Succeeding in Business without Losing at Life
September 30, 2022
Kim Samuel is a leading voice across the ideological spectrum for finding universal connection. A trailblazing activist and movement builder, Samuel curates exceptional stories from her own life and those of leaders worldwide who are putting what she calls The Right to Belong into practice. Both a celebration and a call to arms for the inalienable right we all have for connecton within our own lives, our own communities, and the world in which we live. Inspirational, moving, and eye-opening, this book offers a profound treatise for coming to terms with and bringing an end to the crisis of contemporary isolation.
November 24, 2022
On Belonging can be a powerful idea to make a change in the problems of the world we are in NOW. The book comes out at a time when we were (are) fighting Covid-19. The book comes at in a terrible time and we see the power of bringing together.
The author doesn’t expect everyone to be a doctor to fix the world. Samuel carefully reminds us what we can do and what we should do to help others.
At some time the writing becomes thick. It may be better to read the book in groups. But readers in a group will get the core of the book. The author makes it clear that that every read can do something that will change the world. But a group can with support in money.
The author doesn’t expect everyone to be a doctor to fix the world. Samuel carefully reminds us what we can do and what we should do to help others.
At some time the writing becomes thick. It may be better to read the book in groups. But readers in a group will get the core of the book. The author makes it clear that that every read can do something that will change the world. But a group can with support in money.
February 18, 2025
Lovely book about the work to make belonging a human right. The first half of the book is the best, in my opinion, explaining the consequences of loneliness in a world built to separate people. The second half is full of stories of people and groups who are making a difference in their communities.
"If cities are "ideas," then urban design must actively reconceptualize the way we see our social, economic, political, and spatial configurations as maps for creating a more equitable, environmentally, sustainable, and compassionate vision for human gathering – gathering in which strangers and encountering each other encourages a sense of inclusion and belonging in a diverse human family."
"If cities are "ideas," then urban design must actively reconceptualize the way we see our social, economic, political, and spatial configurations as maps for creating a more equitable, environmentally, sustainable, and compassionate vision for human gathering – gathering in which strangers and encountering each other encourages a sense of inclusion and belonging in a diverse human family."
April 19, 2023
An incredibly deep read that reflects on what makes up belonging and how by creating belonging we create stronger more empowered, caring, collaborative communities that can heal and create inclusive systems change.
This book has caused me to completely rethink how social change can happen. Very powerful.
This book has caused me to completely rethink how social change can happen. Very powerful.
September 18, 2022
This is very timely (as isolation in various forms seems to be increasing across the US and elsewhere), and it's well-written. The stories, people, and experience described bring a depth and understanding to the topic that likely hit home with readers. Recommended.
October 11, 2022
This book provides some wonderful examples of belonging in people, place, power and purpose.
August 11, 2025
Long and involved, some useful suggestions.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews