Hi, I’m Kevin Van Lierop.
I live in London, Canada as an uninvited guest on Indigenous land. 👋
I hold a Bachelor of Education from Western University and a Master of Adult Education from St. Francis Xavier University.
More than a decade's worth of civic & place-based work informed my major research efforts which considers the importance of place 🤔 in shaping the learning experiences most influential in fostering community leadership skills.
In previous lives I was regarded as a community leader, organic intellectual and a place enthusiast. Now, I mostly read 📚, take care of aging loved ones, brew kombucha 🍹, and enjoy living a small home lifestyle.
Although I still have a LinkedIn profile, I gave up on the social web as a platform for civilized & thoughtful discourse a long time ago. I would rather nurture & maintain long conversations via email with others who similarly care to invest the time.
Meaning, if you send me an email you're guaranteed to receive a reply.
Unclassified Works ⚙
This site is mostly an unfinished archive of past & (some) ongoing work. As I find the time and uncover new, old-works, I add them here. Lots of what you'll find is messy, unfinished, and representative of former versions of myself— spelling errors and clichés included.
Take a look around— I've highlighted some things that I'm proud of.
Contents
Biographical
Works
- Kombucha
- A Reading Habit
- hy(de)blog
- Commonplace
- Long Play
- Good City Co.
- Vacant
- Little Landor Library
- Circumnavigating Lake Fanshawe
- On Appreciating the Land which Surrounds Us
- The Importance of Place
- Master of Adult Education
- My Hometown Sucks, Place, and Shared Sameness
- For Community
- What is Place but a Social Construct?
- 17 Grand Ave.
- Form & Foundry
- The Localist
- Noted Notion Co.
- Place as a Verb
- Librarians as Adult Educators
- Wednesday Night Bike Rides
- Commonwealth
- Geek Dinner Reunion
- London Walks
- Don’t Worry. [this city] is awesome
- Rochester, New York
- Visible Storage Project
- Eames: a series of graphics
- [this city]
- Authentic Experiences
- Why Block Party in a Box?
- Stefan Hacking Reads
- Block Party in a Box
- The Shadow Dance
- What is a chair?
- Official Passport
- [place:ship]
- Make a Move
- London Culture Tour: Dive Bar Edition
- What About Our Stories?
- The Path
- Parking (Ottawa, Ontario)
- Walk London
- Urban Film Nights
- The Today Card
- Mechanically Separated
- #6
- Big City Lights
- 9 Minutes
- Hamilton Road
- PARK(ing) Day
- This Once Was
- The Lot
- Biography of a Woman
- Mini Sagas
- 100 Ways
- 365 Days
- Yellow Chairs
- Liberty Village
- Raine Maida
- Paris, France
Press & Media
- Growing Prosperity Award
- Awesome Member of the Week
- Young Alumni Award
- Last Call: Perspective from an Urban Explorer
- Unofficial Signs Take First Steps
- The Fourth Wall
- How to Work 40 Hours a Week and Not Get Paid a Damn Cent OR How to Stay Sane
- Reimaginging Participation
- Justice: Signs of Change
Reads
- A Reading Note
- Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (2007) ⭐️⭐️
- I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage (2007) ⭐⭐
- Life Is Like Canadian Football and Other Authentic Folk Songs (2021) (in progress)
- Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (2012) ⭐️️️⭐️️️⭐️️️⭐️️️⭐️️️
- Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age (2020) ⭐️️⭐️️
- The Quest for Meaning: A Guide to Semiotic Theory and Practice (2007) ⭐️️️️
Talking to Canadians(2021) ⭐️️- Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things (2010) ⭐️️️️
- A Reading Diary: A Year of Favourite Books (2004) ⭐️️⭐️️
- How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization (2004) ⭐️️⭐️️
- Quit: the power of knowing when to walk away (2022) ⭐️️️⭐️️️
- Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less (2023) ⭐️️️
- Literature Unbound (1984) ⭐️️️
- CITIZENS: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us (2022)
- Addicted: Notes from the Belly of the Beast (2001)
- I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) (2007)
- Essential Labour: Mothering as Social Change (2022) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- A Promised Land (2020) ⭐️️⭐️️
- Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (2021) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Atomic Habits (2018)
- Becoming (2018) ⭐️⭐️
- Year Book (2021)
- Ex Libro’s: Confessions of a Common Reader (1998)
- Greenlights (2020) ⭐️
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants(2013)- Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (2012) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ♻️
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? (2010) ♻️
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (2011) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ♻️
- A Week at the Airport (2009)
- From Here to There: The Art and Science of Finding and Losing Our Way (2020)
- How to Do Nothing (2020) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- A World Without Email Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload (2021) ⭐️
- Herland (1915)
- Bibliotherapy: The Right Book at the Right Time (1980)
- How to Read a Book (1972) ⭐️
A Walker in the City(1951)- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (2011) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ♻️
- How To Be An Antiracist (2019) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Badluck Way A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West (2013)
- Huron & Erie Regional Digest: Summer (2020)
- Brother (2017)
- City Quitters: An Exploration of Post-Urban Life (2018)
- Grit (2016)
- From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way (2019)
- Deeds/Abstracts: The History of a London Lot, 1 January 1991 - 6 October 1992 (1995) ♻️
- Huron & Erie Regional Digest: Spring (2020)
- Columbine (2009)
- Deschooling Society (1971)
- A History of Reading (1996) ⭐️️
- A Grief Observed (1961)
- A Good Neighborhood (2020) ⭐️️
- Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life (2012)
- Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America (2018) ⭐️
- Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (1995)
- Deepening Community: Finding Joy Together in Chaotic Times (2014) ♻️
- Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016) ⭐️
- Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World (2019) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (2011) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ♻️
- Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (2018)
- Handbook for the Positive Revolution (1991)
- Drinking in America Our Secret History (2015)
- Book Ends: A Year Between the Covers (2010)
- Anne of Green Gables (1908)
- Letters from a Stoic (4 BC-AD 65) ⭐️
- Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (1999) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
- How Will You Measure Your Life? (2012)
- Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. (2018)
- Experience and Education (1938)
- Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth (2018)
- Fifty Days of Solitude (1994)
- Commonwealth (2016)
- Educated (2018) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Your Money or Your Life (1992)
- Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design (2012)
- Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone (2017)
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (2011) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ♻️
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (2011) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ♻️
- Love Where You Live: Creating Emotionally Engaging Places (2014)
- Detroit: An American Autopsy (2013)
- Keep Your Love On: Connection Communication And Boundaries (2013)
- Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (2012) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary (2006)
- Etta and Otto and Russell and James (2015)
- For the Love of Cities (2011)
- An Other Kingdom: Departing the Consumer Culture (2016)
- Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change (1992)
- Less Is More: The Art of Voluntary Poverty (1996)
- Living Walden Two: B. F. Skinner’s Behaviorist Utopia and Experimental Communities (2005)
- Born for This: How to Find the Work You Were Meant to Do (2016)
- Design for Real Life (2016)
- Leap: Leaving a Job with No Plan B to Find the Career and Life You Really Want (2015)
- Let the Elephants Run (2014)
- Leadership: For Active Creative Engaged Communities (2012)
- Into the Wild (1996) ⭐️ ♻️
- Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008)
- Better Together: Restoring the American Community (2003)
- Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs (2016)
- In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist (2012)
- Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (2011)
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (2011) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Lonely: Learning to Live with Solitude (2010) ⭐️
- Animal Farm (1945)
- Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Everything I Know (2013)
- Coffee Shop Contemplations (2013)
You Can’t Go Home Again(1940)- Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (2004)
- Education for Socially Engaged Art: A Materials and Techniques Handbook (2011)
- Living in the Sprawl: Ideas for a suburbia that gets better with age (2012)
- The Social Life Of Small Urban Spaces (1980) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Local Motion: The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto (2006)
- Deeds/Abstracts: The History of a London Lot (1995)
- Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000) ⭐️
- enough (2012)
- It Will Be Exhilarating (2012)
- The Flinch (2011)
- Do the Work (2011)
- Excursions (1863)
- Civil Disobedience (1849)
- Keeping It Straight (2011)
- Into the Wild (1996) ⭐️
- focus: A Simplicity Manifesto in the Age of Distraction (2010)
- The Truth about Leadership: The No-fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know (2010)
- Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality (2012)
- Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas (2011)
- Poke the Box (2011)
- Community Conversations: Mobilizing the Ideas, Skills, and Passion of Community Organizations, Governments, Businesses, and People (2008)
- Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life (2013)
- At Last There Is Nothing Left To Say (2000) ⭐️⭐️⭐️