Setting the Stage for Sustainabilty

Detailed Description As humans, we make choices. With change as a constant, we are continually presented with a number of choices, and we must choose. The change represented by the divergence of humanity from the rest of the world is rapidly growing, and in need of transformation. Setting the Stage for Sustainable Community Development is a guide for that transformation, which can help to create a sense of "place" where it did not previously exist. This invaluable text looks at resolving environmental conflicts through a "transformative" rather than a "problem-solving" approach. The transformative approach emphasizes the capacity of facilitation for personal growth. The text analyzes good and bad institutionalized social patterns in an ecological sense. The authors believe that through positive thinking and the willingness to take risks, we can become creative forces in our communities and in the world. TOC:Preface.- Returning Home.- The Concept of Community: True Community is Founded on a Sense of Place, History, and Trust. Local Community Under Stress. Shades of Community, A Lesson from Birds. The Existence of Community Depends on How We Treat One Another.- Resolving Conflicts: Social/Environmental Sustainability and Conflict. Can Destructive Conflicts be Resolved? Resolving Destructive Environmental Conflict. Facilitation at the Crossroad. Compromise and the Point of Balance. A Curriculum of Compassion and Justice.- Communication: Language as a Tool. Silence and the Need to be Heard. The Basic Elements of Communication. Barriers to Communication. Good Communication.- Beginning to Think About Economics and Sustainability: Understanding Some Economic Concepts. Identifying Our World View. Economic Growth from the Planetary Scale to the Personal.- The Language of Common Economic Concepts: The General Role of Semantics. The Terms.- Distribution is the Key to Economic Sustainability: An Economy in a Nutshell. Economic Feasibility.- Human Relationships are the Social Glue of a Community: Intrapersonal. Interpersonal. Between People and the Environment. Between People in the Present and those of the Future.- Social Governance: Democracy as the Context for Social Relationships. The Role of Democratic Government.- A Shared Vision - The Gateway to a Community's Future: Through the Eyes of an Insect. Questions We Need to Ask. Visions, Goals, and Objectives.- Preparing to Implement Sustainable Community: What are Some of the Questions that Need Asking as We Prepare to Embark on Our Journey Toward Sustainable Community Development? What Sources of Energy are Available to Our Community? What Social Capital is Available within Our Community? How Can Specialties be Sustainably Fit into a General Community? What is Necessary to Build a Community in an Intelligent, Moral Way? When is Enough, Enough? Are the Consequences of our Decisions Reversible, and if so, to What Degree? How Will the Things we Want to Introduce into Our Community's Environment Affect Its Future? How Much Waste can we Convert into Food for Microorganisms? Will Planning Benefit us as a Community? Why Monitor for Sustainability?- Summary and Conclusion.