Wiktionary
n. (context idiomatic English) A characteristic or interest shared by multiple people or systems; any belief, etc. held in common.
WordNet
n. a basis agreed to by all parties for reaching a mutual understanding
Wikipedia
Finding common ground is a technique for facilitating interpersonal relationships. In order to find common ground between parties, participants must search for signals of recognition, which are often subtle and cause for misunderstanding. Generally, smiles, bland faces, or frowns can be the positive, neutral or negative signals. When verbal communication is possible, the participants can speak and then listen.
Historically, the commons in many communities were a place which was available to everyone, such as the village pump, or the sidewalk of a road. Thus even for those far from home, the sight of someone familiar only from the commons might be comforting to a homesick or lonely traveller. This effect can be seen in many kinship groups. One measure for interpersonal relationships is warmth. Thus discovery of common ground is commonly cause for comfort and additional happiness among the participants, and is one step on the way to respect or perhaps friendship.
However, to some people in small-enough communities, conflict may have occurred between them too often to find common ground, and isolation from each other is the only path toward healing and a healthy relationship. For such people, shunning of the commons is necessary. But if one is forced onto the commons, then a minimal acceptable behavior toward others is necessary when on common ground, as in a truce.
As an example, one technique for anonymous trade between mutually suspicious parties was for the offerers to lay the goods (such as gold) in a clearing (the potential common ground), and then to hide in the forest with the gold in their plain sight, while armed with weapons, in the event of treachery. Thus, the offers could be made to traders. The traders, who bore goods (and who were also armed with weapons), would lay the trade goods in the clearing, and take the gold back with them. This was a mechanism for trading between the Moors and the gold miners of Africa over a millennium ago, and also for trade with Sumatra (the isle of gold) and other islands of Southeast Asia. This has some structural similarity to the policy of mutually assured destruction during the Cold War era.
Today, we have the advantage of more highly developed communications techniques, but the basic need for minimizing suspicion and maximizing trust remains with us, worldwide, at a time when polarization is increasing.
Common Ground is a United Kingdom charity and lobby group. Founded in 1982 by Susan Clifford and Angela King, Common Ground aims to promote " local distinctiveness" (a phrase which Common Ground coined during the 1980s).
Common Ground may refer to:
- Common ground (communication technique)
- Grounding in communication (theory)
- Common resources, publicly owned areas, especially those for meeting
- Common land, ground where the public have traditional rights, such as grazing
Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families is a nonfiction book by J. Anthony Lukas, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1985, that examines race relations in Boston, Massachusetts through the prism of desegregation busing. It received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The book traces the history of three families: the working-class African-American Twymons, the working-class Irish McGoffs and the middle-class Yankee Divers. It gives brief genealogical histories of each families, focusing on how the events they went through illuminated Boston history, before narrowing its focus to the racial tension of the 1960s and the 1970s. Through their stories, Common Ground focuses on racial and class conflicts in two Boston neighborhoods—the working-class Irish-American enclave of Charlestown, and the uneasily integrated South End.
Each family is directly involved in the busing crisis. The McGoffs are proud residents of Charlestown who see an attempt to change the dynamics of their school as an assault on their families. The Twymons have long endured sub-standard education and are hoping that busing will finally change this. Colin Diver, a Harvard Law School graduate and assistant to Mayor Kevin White, and his wife Joan Diver, director of The Hyams Foundation, move into the gentrifying South End, a block from one of the Twymon sisters, who lives with her children in the shoddily constructed Methunion Manor housing project. The Divers are in favor of busing, but the effects hit home when they learn that it may result in their own son being bused to a foreign neighborhood. After six years of combating racial and class tension and street violence, the Divers leave the city for suburban Newton.
In addition to the family stories, Common Ground examines many of the issues related to busing, including the protest movements, the disaffection between the "two-toilet" Irish middle-class and their working-class brethren, the impact of busing on national politics, and the evolution of the city's newsmedia.
Common Ground is a 2000 Showtime television movie directed by Donna Deitch and written by Paula Vogel, Terrence McNally and Harvey Fierstein.
Common Ground is an album released by Paul Winter in 1978 for A&M Records Inc. Songs on the album include elements of different musical styles coupled with the sounds of whales, wolves and eagles. A live wolf was used in some concerts for the 1978 tour supporting the album such at New Haven's Woolsey Hall.
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Common Ground is the debut artist album written and produced by British trance duo Leama & Moor released on Lost Language and Tirade Records in 2006. The album is a continuously mixed artist set that takes the listener on a journey through ambient soundscapes and cinematic textures, acoustic rock, house, breaks, and trance music. It has also featured vocalists Jan Johnston and Ashley Tomberlin (from Luminary) and a duo project called Rushmore.
Jan Johnston did vocals for the song "Waiting" and Ashley Tomberlin contributed vocals to "Everything Matters", as she mentioned it on her MySpace profile in her blog..
Rushmore, who had collaborated with Leama & Moor on "Distance Between Us" returns and offered vocals on the acoustic rock/ambient fused track "Cry For Help".
The actual CD is a mixed album, but it is also sold on Beatport and the iTunes Music Store as unmixed songs for the digital album sale. The iTunes version, however has some of the song files a little messed up with CD skipping in the songs.
The lead single "Everything Matters" remixed by Matthew Dekay is featured on Tiësto's In Search of Sunrise 5: Los Angeles.
Common Ground is the major label debut and first full-length studio album by the alternative rock band Rhythm Corps. The album reached No. 104 on the Billboard 200 albums chart on September 24, 1988.
Common Ground is an EP by guitarist Andy McKee. It was released on August 25, 2009, and was offered digitally only on sites such as iTunes, Amazon, and Lala. The iTunes package for it included four videos. Two of each video were of the same song, with each corresponding video either with or without commentary from McKee. Common Ground is McKee's first release with the label Razor & Tie, and features re-recorded versions of songs from his album Dreamcatcher, as well as a cover of Masaaki Kishibe's song "Hana".
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Common Ground is a nonprofit affordable housing developer in Seattle, Washington. Its primary goal is creating and preserving high-quality permanent and transitional housing for the homeless; it now also includes nonprofit facilities other than housing, such as community centers and medical buildings. The core of the organization are housing development specialists, who work together with existing nonprofit social service agencies, government agencies and housing authorities.
Common Ground is a 1916 silent film drama produced by Jesse Lasky, directed by William C. deMille and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is an original story for the screen and stars Thomas Meighan and Marie Doro.
Print held by British Film Institute.
Common Ground was a literary magazine published quarterly between 1940 and 1949 by the Common Council for American Unity to further an appreciation of contributions to U.S. culture by many ethnic, religions and national groups.
Common Ground is a 1983 album by folk rock musician Richie Havens.
Album was recorded at Stone Castle Studios in Carimate (Como) Italy.
Usage examples of "common ground".
When the principle is understood on which that point is determined by the law of torts, we possess a common ground of classification, and a key to the whole subject, so far as tradition has not swerved the law from a consistent theory.
If, therefore, there is any common ground for all liability in tort, we shall best find it by eliminating the event as it actually turns out, and by considering only the principles on which the peril of his conduct is thrown upon the actor.
My aim and purpose have been to show that the various forms of liability known to modern law spring from the common ground of revenge.
It was a persistent fissure in their alliance with the Heart Worlds - which had been too rich and too safe for too long - and their one patch of common ground with the despised Fringers.
It was a persistent fissure in their alliance with the Heart Worlds -- which had been too rich and too safe for too long -- and their one patch of common ground with the despised Fringers.
So lets cut the crap about who did what to whom and see if we can find a common ground.
All met on common ground, shared each other's troubles, and assisted each other in difficult work.
The Laagi and the mindpeople don't have anything in commonno common ground at all.
The Laagi and the mind-people don't have anything in common-no common ground at all.
He lay in the hope that he was dealing with humanoids, with whom he automatically had some common ground.
There might be no way to communicate with such a creature, no common ground at all.