Dallmayr assesses and puts into perspective the work of many of the seminal thinkers of the twentieth century...as hetakes up such topics as the plausibility of friendship as a model for political relations, the relation between politcal praxis and "experience," Heidegger's ontology of freedom...and the merits and disadvantages of Habermasian critical theory.  the result is a stimulating and original contribution to current political discourse that explores and advocates the manifold possible levels of active political life below adn above the level of the State.

Stephen Denning, a former manager at the world bank, elegantly describes his entry into the world of storytelling to effect change. With a handful of carefully chosen stories, he learns how to excite employees to embrace and impliment "Knowledge Management." As a result of his effort, within three years the World Bank had begun to fully integrate this new practice into its mission and structure.

Denning's analysis of what he calls a "Springboard Story" is fascinating. Rather than transporting the listener deeply into the story, he uses a bare-bones story to engage their interest but allow their minds to wander and create a "What if we did that..." scenario. It's a distinction between storytelling as entertainment and storytelling as management tool. In this book, Denning doesn't show the application of storytelling outside of the knowledge-management field. In other words, how would it work in changing a car company? Also, he says that storytelling stopped when his role changed from cheerleader and innovator to administrator of the new organizational structure he created. Don't the "drones" need stories too? Is there a way to imbue ordinary tasks with the kind of urgency and poignancy that is available through storytelling? I look forward to reading more of his work.