To address the challenges of sustainability in rural areas of Mexico, it must be considered that globalization opened the way to a new conception of rural development and consequently to a change of strategies aimed at achieving higher levels of productivity, often unrelated to social welfare. This widened poverty in the countryside and forced the…

Community change approaches have increasingly involved participatory practices in which community members directly impacted by an issue participate in implementing change efforts. However, community participation as a practice and approach does not always include youth participation. Within the field of youth organizing, young people are…

Introduction. The purpose of this research is to investigate the significance of public libraries as educational institutions. The meaning of lifelong learning in public libraries from the perspective of women's autonomous activities is re-examined. Method. The literature of the grassroots library movement and that of the empowerment of women is…

The history of Chicago FM radio station WEFM and the activities of the Citizen's Committee to Save WEFM are chronicled. The focus is principally on the actions of the Citizen's Committee to prevent the conversion of the radio station from a classical music format to rock and roll offerings and to block the sale of the station by Zenith to GCC…

This 11-section report focuses on examples of community-based collaborative efforts in Michigan which address the needs of children and youth in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Section One provides an introduction to the report. Section Two looks at the status of Michigan's children, youth, and families, and includes a summary of sociodemographic…

Suggests that Americans often overlook the importance of historic preservation because of prevailing ideas of progress that devalue the past and a nouveau riche mentality embarrassed by the past. Points out the irreplaceable value of local landmarks that tie a community to its past. Describes instances where ordinary people pooled their resources…

Social change on behalf of the disadvantaged in a neighborhood or community can be achieved through various types of change agents, models, and approaches. One of the most effective models was developed by Saul Alinsky, a well-known American community organizer, and it was this model that provided the theoretical framework for the development of…

On April 15, 1964, two black Mississippi civil rights leaders filed a petition with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to deny the license renewal of the Lamar Life Broadcasting station, WLBT-TV, in Jackson (Mississippi). The petition was based on a monitoring study which had revealed that the programing on WLBT-TV provided moderate to…

In a coastal community, four social groups were chosen to participate in various educational programs designed to promote their desire to take environmental action. At the end of these educational programs, conducted by a scientist and an environmental educator, the participants were invited to get involved in the resolution of an environmental…

This paper describes a grassroots effort by one mid-sized midwestern community which led to the development of a voluntary cooperative network of community service providers offering court-referred divorce mediation services to highly conflicted divorcing families. Issues addressed in this paper are: (1) the difference between a court-referred…

Healthy and successful cities are built out of blocks and neighborhoods. Cities are too large and varied to be regarded or run as uniform entities. Block associations are proposed to be one of the major tools that are available for stabilizing and maintaining urban neighborhoods in a fashion that is both inexpensive and responsive to the needs of…

A model for the delivery of mental health services to people residing in small communities (less than 10,000 population) is presented. The model is the product of personal consultation experience over the past three years with a modestly staffed and financed but very successful mental health agency. Emphasis is placed on community action,…

This paper examines an ongoing community debate over a proposed FedEx distribution hub to be constructed at the local airport. The essay looks to theorists, including Patsy Healey, Richard Johannesen, Daniel Kemmis, James Klumpp, and Martha Nussbaum. These theorists provide a way to view the role of consensus, power, and norms of communication…

A successful charter school does more than educate and train children: it unites a community. That is the keynote of this bulletin, an edited version of remarks delivered at a luncheon by one of the founders of a charter school in Albany, New York. It describes the process of creating one particular charter school and the lessons learned from the…

Presents a speech by Malcolm X delivered at Harvard College in March 1964. Malcolm X gives his views of the future of black community politics and presents his notion that the black vote is central to American politics. (GLR)