The 1990s have been marked by a wide-spread awareness of the convergence of environmental, economic and social problems and issues. Many local workers have begun to recognize that severe setbacks or even collapse of their local economy is strongly related to environmental problems: either to the depletion of local resources (such as timber, fish, or minerals) or to severe pollution and degradation of the local ecosystem. This in-depth collection of case studies of urban and rural communities committed to a process of sustainable development provides a more detailed description of this dynamic process than was previously available. This provocative book demonstrates the commonalities in approach across a wide variety of environmental and cultural settings, examining an emerging consciousness from cultural, economic, social and environmental viewpoints.

Ordinary people, community leaders, and even organizations and corporations still do not fully comprehend the interconnected, “big picture” dynamics of sustainability theory and action. In exploring means to become more sustainable, individuals and groups need a reference in which to frame discussions so they will be relevant, educational, and successful when implemented. This book puts ideas on sustainable communities into a conceptual framework that will promote striking, transformational effects on decision-making. In this book practitioners and community leaders will find effective, comprehensive tools and resources at their finger-tips to facilitate sustainable community development (SCD). The book content examines a diverse range of SCD methods; assessing community needs and resources; creating community visions; promoting stakeholder interest and participation; analyzing community problems; designing and facilitating strategic planning; carrying out interventions to improve

This book, Engineering and Sustainable Community Development, presents an overview of engineering as it relates to humanitarian engineering, service learning engineering, or engineering for community development, often called sustainable community development (SCD). The topics covered include a history of engineers and development, the problems of using industry-based practices when designing for communities, how engineers can prepare to work with communities, and listening in community development. It also includes two case studies -- one of engineers developing a windmill for a community in India, and a second of an engineer "mapping communities" in Honduras to empower people to use water effectively -- and student perspectives and experiences on one curricular model dealing with community development. Table of Contents: Introduction / Engineers and Development: From Empires to Sustainable Development / Why Design for Industry Will Not Work as Design for Community / Engineering with Community / Listening to Community / ESCD Case Study 1: Sika Dhari's Windmill / ESCD Case Study 2: Building Organizations and Mapping Communities in Honduras / Students' Perspectives on ESCD: A Course Model / Beyond Engineers and Community: A Path Forward

This book explores sustainable community development in Ghana post-COVID-19, highlighting examples of how individuals facing extreme challenges have adapted to their changing circumstances. Through the voices of African researchers, it explores the different responses that local, subnational, and national stakeholders and communities initiated to preserve the gains made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Ghana during the global pandemic. This collection considers how policy makers are tackling the pressing issues of sustainability, climate change and its effects on Africa and Ghana in particular, and multi-stakeholder policy responses to building communities in a post-COVID-19 world. The case studies show how communities are interacting to ensure sustainable community development and learning in the Global South, and the role that education and learning, both formal and informal, play in strengthening livelihoods, choices, and opportunities in African communities. An assessment of multi-stakeholder policy responses to building communities in Ghana, this book will be of interest to scholars and students in the field of Education, Education Management, Sociology, Economics, and African Studies. It will also be of interest to policy makers and practitioners engaged in community development programmes and activities and the development of associated policies.

More Americans recycle than vote. And most do so to improve their communities and the environment. But do recycling programs advance social, economic, and environmental goals? To answer this, three sociologists with expertise in urban and environmental planning have conducted the first major study of urban recycling. They compare four types of programs in the Chicago metropolitan area: a community-based drop-off center, a municipal curbside program, a recycling industrial park, and a linkage program. Their conclusion, admirably elaborated, is that recycling can realize sustainable community development, but that current programs achieve few benefits for the communities in which they are located. The authors discover that the history of recycling mirrors many other urban reforms. What began in the 1960s as a sustainable community enterprise has become a commodity-based, profit-driven industry. Large private firms, using public dollars, have chased out smaller nonprofit and family-owned efforts. Perhaps most troubling is that this process was not born of economic necessity. Rather, as the authors show, socially oriented programs are actually more viable than profit-focused systems. This finding raises unsettling questions about the prospects for any sort of sustainable local development in the globalizing economy. Based on a decade of research, this is the first book to fully explore the range of impacts that recycling generates in our communities. It presents recycling as a tantalizing case study of the promises and pitfalls of community development. It also serves as a rich account of how the state and private interests linked to the global economy alter the terrain of local neighborhoods.

One of the most important challenges facing civilization is how its natural resources will be used and protected. Too often polarization and litigation cause results with which no one is truly satisfied. Enemies are made, lines are drawn and both people and the environment are degraded. Resolving Environmental Conflict explains the transformative approach toward facilitation. It shows how to help parties empower themselves to define the issues and decide the settlement on their own terms and on their own time through better understanding of one another's perspectives. The transformative approach allows a conflict's outcome to be decided solely by the participants even though resolution may not take place for some months after facilitation is complete. Inherent in the solution is a shared vision for the community without which sustainability is not possible. Beyond shared vision, this book examines notions of development, sustainability, and community and the synergism of ecology, culture and economic needs that promote a healthy environment enriching the lives of all its inhabitants.

As the tourist industry becomes increasingly important to communities around the world, the need to develop tourism sustainably has also become a primary concern. This collection of international case-studies addresses this crucial issue by asking what local communities can contribute to sustainable tourism, and what sustainability can offer local communities. Individually these investigations present a wealth of original research and source material. Collectively the book illuminates the term 'community', the meaning of which, it is argued, is vital to understanding how sustainable tourism development can be implemented in practice.

The event tourism business has become more and more essential to community development in countries around the world, helping to increase the appeal of specific destinations and generating huge economic benefits for the communities of the destinations, impacting local economies. With examples from India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Portugal, Argentina, and Zimbabwe, this volume provides a valuable examination of sustainable community development in conjunction with event tourism along with helpful tools for promoting, organizing, and hosting successful events. This book looks at a wide range of festivals and other events around the world and examines their impact on tourism, sustainability, local culture and community, and community development. It highlights rural as well as urban event tourism, event tourism during and after COVID–19, how event tourism impacts women’s empowerment, promoting event tourism and community development, new opportunities and challenges in event tourism education, and more.

Community development has lately gained much prominence, but the emphasis has remained on the economic and social welfare of communities, rather than the environment. By focusing on 'sustainable' development in Kenya, this study shows the importance of integrating ecological concerns in socio-economic and cultural development processes.