An introduction to our special series on belonging.

Yubei Gong is a design researcher and educator, currently finishing her PhD at the Tongji College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University. She was a strategy consultant at ReD from 2011-14.

There’s an assumption that people want algorithms to serve up frictionless experiences, but our work shows something different. People want to have relationships and dialogues with algorithms and hack them toward different ends – in other words, social algorithms.

Nikki Neuburger, Chief Brand Officer at lululemon, on building community from the ground-up, the importance of two-way dialogue to foster belonging among consumers, and navigating an increasingly polarised cultural landscape.

HerMoney CEO Jean Chatzky on creating judgment-free safe spaces, fostering belonging in digital communities, and the importance of leading with vulnerability and intimacy.

Sesame Workshop’s Kim Foulds and Scott Cameron on the educational benefits of belonging, balancing culturally specific and culturally agnostic content, and why Muppets are the perfect tools for learning.

Tertulia co-founder Lynda Hammes on the power of books in community-building, how to use AI to go beyond personalisation and towards belonging, and her future vision for Tertulia.

In this series of vignettes, people at ReD reflect on the spaces around them that at different moments in their lives, have impacted their sense of belonging.

What financial institutions can learn from the hidden cultures of crypto.

One Day We Arrived in Japan, a feature documentary about three families who leave Brazil in search of a better future in Japan.

What can luxury companies learn from a soft drink campaign and a Berlin nightclub about belonging?

From sci-fi novels to ancient philosophical meditations by way of classic sociological studies, our staff picks on the best books about belonging.

How can a more social and cultural understanding of mental health offer better solutions to care?

Zlatko Rihter (CEO at Mölnlyck) speaks to Martin Gronemann about trusting the ethnographic process, embracing a customer-oriented approach, and uniting the worlds of business and social sciences to build strategy.

Is an overemphasis on shallow belonging contributing to a crisis of loneliness?

WorldFish’s interim director general on shifting the climate narrative and using social science to lead organisational change

A list of articles, Twitter threads, blog posts, podcasts, and books is an attempt to cut through the unchecked hyperbole and direct you to the most interesting angles on the topic.

What can we learn from the luxury industry about making sustainability sustainable?

The feeling and function of belonging in building community in sport and music – with author David Sikorjak and musician Clyde Lawrence.

From fashion brands to Silicon Valley giants, virtually every company is trying to make algorithms work for their business.