Download or read book Neighbor Power written by Jim Diers and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing concrete examples for citizens and government officials, Diers describes a successful program to support community self-help projects and a community-driven planning process that involved 30,000 people.
Download or read book Neighbor Power written by Jim A. Diers and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on the lessons of early labor leaders, civil rights volunteers, and political activists, Jim Diers has developed his own models and successful strategies for community development. Neighbor Power chronicles his involvement with Seattle’s communities. This book not only gives hope that participatory democracy is possible, but it offers practical applications and invaluable lessons for ordinary, caring citizens who want to make a difference. It also provides government officials with inspiring stories and proven programs to help them embrace citizen activists as true partners. Diers’s experience is extensive. He began as a community organizer in 1976, then moved on to help establish and staff a system of consumer-elected medical center councils. This led him to Seattle city government, where he served under three mayors as the first director of the Department of Neighborhoods, recognized as the national leader in such efforts. In the 1990s, Jim Diers helped Seattle neighborhoods face challenges ranging from gang violence to urban growth. The Neighborhood Matching Fund grew to support over 400 community self-help projects each year while a community-driven planning process involved 30,000 people. Diers provides evidence that productive community life is thriving, not just in Seattle, Washington, but in towns and cities across the globe. Both practical and inspiring, Neighbor Power offers real-life examples of how to build active, creative neighborhoods and enjoy the rich results of community empowerment.
Download or read book Giving white paper written by Great Britain: Cabinet Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-05-23 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: British people give more than £10 billion to charities, and volunteers work tirelessly for many organisations. But the giving of both time and money has flat-lined and some in the voluntary sector warn of decline. This white paper aims to make it easier and more compelling for people to give time and money to causes they support. The Government will be investing over £40 million in volunteering and social action over the next two years. And £80 million investment in Community First will encourage social action in neighbourhoods with significant deprivation and low social capital. The Social Action Fund and Challenge Prizes will support models that make giving easier; the Local Infrastructure Fund will provide additional money to help deliver more effective support for charities and community groups. New ways to give money will include ATM giving and "Round Pound" schemes to give small amounts when paying by card. Investment will be provided for the new Philanthropy UK website and for the Do-it volunteering database. Community organisers and business connectors will galvanise social action in communities. Criminal Records Bureau checks will be reduced to common-sense levels. Inheritance tax will be reduced to 36% for those who leave 10% or more of their estate to charity. New social norms will be encouraged: Ministers will lead by example, giving a day a year to a good cause; a philanthropy committee will review candidates for honours; core funding and match funding for schools-based programmes. Changes to Gift Aid are planned.
Download or read book Investing in Democracy written by Carmen Sirianni and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The health of American democracy ultimately depends on our willingness and ability to work together as citizens and stakeholders in our republic. Government policies often fail to promote such collaboration. But if designed properly, they can do much to strengthen civic engagement. That is the central message of Carmen Sirianni's eloquent new book. Rather than encourage citizens to engage in civic activity, government often puts obstacles in their way. Many agencies treat citizens as passive clients rather than as community members, overlooking their ability to mobilize assets and networks to solve problems. Many citizen initiatives run up against rigid rules and bureaucratic silos, causing all but the most dedicated activists to lose heart. The unfortunate—and unnecessary—result is a palpable decline in the quality of civic life. Fortunately, growing numbers of policymakers across the country are figuring out how government can serve as a partner and catalyst for collaborative problem solving. Investing in Democracy details three such success stories: neighborhood planning in Seattle; youth civic engagement programs in Hampton, Virginia; and efforts to develop civic environmentalism at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The book explains what measures were taken and why they succeeded. It distills eight core design principles that characterize effective collaborative governance and concludes with concrete recommendations for federal policy.
Download or read book This Is Where You Belong written by Melody Warnick and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-07-04 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spirit of Gretchen Rubin’s megaseller The Happiness Project and Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss, a journalist embarks on a project to discover what it takes to love where you live The average restless American will move 11.7 times in a lifetime. For Melody Warnick, it was move #6, from Austin, Texas, to Blacksburg, Virginia, that threatened to unhinge her. In the lonely aftermath of unpacking, she wondered: Aren’t we supposed to put down roots at some point? How does the place we live become the place we want to stay? This time, she had an epiphany. Rather than hold her breath and hope this new town would be her family’s perfect fit, she would figure out how to fall in love with it—no matter what. How we come to feel at home in our towns and cities is what Warnick sets out to discover in This Is Where You Belong. She dives into the body of research around place attachment—the deep sense of connection that binds some of us to our cities and increases our physical and emotional well-being—then travels to towns across America to see it in action. Inspired by a growing movement of placemaking, she examines what its practitioners are doing to create likeable locales. She also speaks with frequent movers and loyal stayers around the country to learn what draws highly mobile Americans to a new city, and what makes us stay. The best ideas she imports to her adopted hometown of Blacksburg for a series of Love Where You Live experiments designed to make her feel more locally connected. Dining with her neighbors. Shopping Small Business Saturday. Marching in the town Christmas parade. Can these efforts make a halfhearted resident happier? Will Blacksburg be the place she finally stays? What Warnick learns will inspire you to embrace your own community—and perhaps discover that the place where you live right now . . . is home.
Download or read book NGOs Civil Society and the Public Sphere written by Sabine Lang and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates how nongovernmental organizations can become stronger advocates for citizens and better representatives of their interests. Sabine Lang analyzes the choices that NGOs face in their work for policy change between working in institutional settings and practicing public advocacy that incorporates constituents' voices.
Download or read book America Beyond Capitalism written by Gar Alperovitz and published by Democracy Collaborative Pres. This book was released on 2011 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America Beyond Capitalism is a book whose time has come. Gar Alperovitz's expert diagnosis of the long-term structural crisis of the American economic and political system is accompanied by detailed, practical answers to the problems we face as a society. Unlike many books that reserve a few pages of a concluding chapter to offer generalized, tentative solutions, Alperovitz marshals years of research into emerging "new economy" strategies to present a comprehensive picture of practical bottom-up efforts currently underway in thousands of communities across the United States. All democratize wealth and empower communities, not corporations: worker-ownership, cooperatives, community land trusts, social enterprises, along with many supporting municipal, state and longer term federal strategies as well. America Beyond Capitalism is a call to arms, an eminently practical roadmap for laying foundations to change a faltering system that increasingly fails to sustain the great American values of equality, liberty and meaningful democracy.
Download or read book Innovations in American Government 1986 1996 written by DIANE Publishing Company and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a list of exemplary programs that address important social & economic issues & fosters their replication in Federal, state & local governments. Contents: ten lessons from innovations; innovations from the inside; eradicating sweatshops; consequence assessment tool set (CATS): disaster damage prediction & mapping; greater avenues for independence (GAIN); Florida Healthy Kids Corp.; Santa Fe affordable housing roundtable; compstat: a crime reduction mgmt. tool; Oregon health plan; arts incubator; contacts for recipients of awards. Photos.
Download or read book Rekindling Democracy written by Cormac Russell and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-06-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finally, a book that offers a practical yet well-researched guide for practitioners seeking to hone the way they show up in citizen space. At a time when public trust in institutions is at its lowest, expectations of those institutions to make people well, knowledgeable, and secure are rapidly increasing. These expectations are unrealistic, causing disenchantment and disengagement among citizens and increasing levels of burnout among many professionals. Rekindling Democracy is not just a practical guide; it goes further in setting out a manifesto for a more equitable social contract to address these issues. Rekindling Democracy argues convincingly that industrialized countries are suffering through a democratic inversion, where the doctor is assumed to be the primary producer of health, the teacher of education, the police officer of safety, and the politician of democracy. Through just the right blend of storytelling, research, and original ideas, Russell argues instead that in a functioning democracy the role of the professionals ought to be defined as that which happens after the important work of citizens is done. The primary role of the twenty-first-century practitioner therefore is not a deliverer of top-down services, but a precipitator of more active citizenship and community building.
Download or read book Urban Politics written by Bernard H. Ross and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-17 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This popular text mixes the best classic theory and research on urban politics with the most recent developments in urban and metropolitan affairs. Its very balanced and realistic approach helps students to understand the nature of urban politics and the difficulty of finding effective solutions in a suburban and global age. The eighth edition provides a comprehensive review and analysis of urban policy under the Obama administration and brand new coverage of sustainable urban development. A new chapter on globalization and its impact on cities brings the history of urban development up to date, and a focus on the politics of local economic development underscores how questions of economic development have come to dominate the local arena. The eighth edition is significantly shorter than previous editions, and the entire text has been thoroughly rewritten to engage students. Boxed case studies of prominent recent and current urban development efforts provide material for class discussion, and concluding material demonstrates the tradeoff between more ideal and more pragmatic urban politics.
Download or read book Superbia written by Dan Chiras and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2009-03-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only book that shows how to transform existing suburbs to create environment- and people-friendly neighborhoods...
Download or read book Politics of Urban Runoff written by Andrew Karvonen and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-08-19 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of urban stormwater runoff that explores the relationships among nature, technology, and society in cities. When rain falls on the city, it creates urban runoff that cause flooding, erosion, and water pollution. Municipal engineers manage a complex network of technical and natural systems to treat and remove these temporary water flows from cities as quickly as possible. Urban runoff is frequently discussed in terms of technical expertise and environmental management, but it encompasses a multitude of such nontechnical issues as land use, quality of life, governance, aesthetics, and community identity, and is central to the larger debates on creating more sustainable and livable cities. In this book, Andrew Karvonen uses urban runoff as a lens to view the relationships among nature, technology, and society. Offering theoretical insights from urban environmental history, human geography, landscape and ecological planning, and science and technology studies as well as empirical evidence from case studies, Karvonen proposes a new relational politics of urban nature. After describing the evolution of urban runoff practices, Karvonen analyzes the urban runoff activities in Austin and Seattle—two cities known for their highly contested public debates over runoff issues and exemplary storm water management practices. The Austin case study highlights the tensions among urban development, property rights, land use planning, and citizen activism; the Seattle case study explores the city's long-standing reputation for being in harmony with nature. Drawing on these accounts, Karvonen suggests a new relational politics of urban nature that is situated, inclusive, and action-oriented to address the tensions among nature, technology, and society.
Download or read book The Livable City written by Partners for Livable Communities and published by McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Written by respected members of the premier non-profit group promoting livability, Partners for Livable Communities (representing 1,000 organizations), The Livable City gives you innovative tools that help you get a handle on the problems of cities today: traffic congestion, urban sprawl, disaffected citizens, physical decay, institutional breakdown, crime.".
Download or read book Cityscape written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Urban Politics written by Myron Levine and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-02-20 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This popular text mixes classic theory and research on urban politics with the most recent developments and data in urban and metropolitan affairs. Its balanced and realistic approach helps students understand the nature of urban politics and the difficulty of finding effective "solutions" in a suburban and global age. The ninth edition has been thoroughly rewritten and updated with a continued focus on economic development and race, plus renewed attention to globalization, gentrification, and changing demographics. Boxed case studies of prominent recent and current urban development efforts provide material for class discussion, and concluding material demonstrates the tradeoff between more "ideal" and more "pragmatic" urban politics. Key changes in this edition include: Every chapter has been thoroughly updated and rewritten. The Ninth Edition reflects the most current census data and the newest trends in such areas as the "new immigration," suburbanization, gentrification, and big-city revivals; There is coverage of the big-city pension crisis and politics in Stockton, Detroit, and other cities facing possible bankruptcy; A brand-new opening chapter introduces the concepts of the Global City, the Entertainment City, and the Bankrupt City; New photos and boxes appear throughout the book; Increased coverage of policies for sustainable urban development.
Download or read book Surviving the Century written by Herbert Girardet and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-05-23 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The combined analysis presented here of why current arrangements are failing the future and clear insights of the way to go, offer us hope.' Mary Robinson, President of Realising Rights, Ethical Globalisation Initiative, and former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Environmental and human catastrophe looms ever larger for planet Earth. Powerful action is required now to turn a deepening global crisis into an unprecedented opportunity for positive change. This book shows how a dramatic transformation of how humans relate to the Earth, and to one another, can be achieved. Surviving the Century is the first major publication by the World Future Council (WFC), a new international voice for future generations. Reflecting the positive mission of the WFC, each chapter addresses a different critical issue in a systematic and constructive way, describing and analysing the topic before indicating real solutions. The eight main issues covered are: countering climate chaos, renewable energy policy, local farming systems, rainforests and climate change, creating sustainable cities, cradle to cradle production systems, a radical vision for trade and creating a living democracy. Surviving the Century is a must-have primer and action plan for all leaders in government, business and NGOs, and for all who want to be part of the historic opportunity to provide solutions to the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. Published with the World Future Council.
Download or read book Varieties of Civic Innovation written by Jennifer Girouard and published by Vanderbilt University Press. This book was released on 2014-12-22 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of original essays, empirical analysts and theorists across disciplines turn a critical eye to a variety of recent institutional forms and styles of innovation. They examine lived reality and theoretical underpinning, promise and accomplishment, but also the pitfalls and capacity-building challenges that face virtually all attempts to bring citizen voice, knowledge, and skill to the center of public problem solving. Their analyses are both hopeful and hard-headed and are guided by commitments to help understand appropriate fit and realistic sustainability. Cases include face-to-face deliberation, online networking and citizen journalism, policy forums, and community and stakeholder planning sessions across local, state and federal contexts. Policy issues run a broad gamut from community and regional economic development and environmental sustainability to minority rights and gay marriage.
