Language does not merely describe a world. It helps bring one forth.

The familiar picture places reality first, perception second, and words third. We encounter a world, form an understanding of it, and then use language to communicate what we have found.

CONSTITUTION examines the evidence that this sequence is not so clean. Language participates in perception, furnishes social worlds with roles and standing, and shapes the futures people and institutions can inhabit.

A developing body of writing

Future essays will extend this inquiry into leadership, institutional design, commitment, listening, organizational life, and the possibility of creating futures that are not merely continuations of the past.